I hope your Uber rides are safe and uneventful, but if you ever run into trouble or experience an unsafe situation during your trip, the ride-sharing service rolled out a new feature today that makes it easy to call 911 from the app itself. With just the tap of a button—and a quick confirmation—you can contact the police to report an accident you were involved in (or any other notable emergency).
When you’re taking an Uber ride, you’ll now see a small police shield icon in the bottom-right corner of the map. Tap on it to pull up an “Emergency Toolkit,” which has “Call 911" as the bottom-most option. Tap on that, and you’re given a massive red button you can press to immediately call emergency services.
If you need to tap the button, the app will display your exact location, the make and model of the vehicle you’re riding in, and the vehicle’s license plate number for you to share with police on the phone. The idea is that having all this information in one place should make it easier to communicate with emergency services.
In six cities, Uber will send your name, your exact location, your Uber car’s make model and color, and the vehicle’s license plate to emergency responders without you having to say a word. That’s a great option for those living in Denver; Charleston; Chattanooga; Naples; Louisville; and the Tri-Cities, Tennessee. Nashville is also slated to get the feature soon, and we hope it rolls out to even more major metropolitan areas after that.
Source: Life Hacker