How did you get home from your last night out? Chances are you, like the rest of us, hailed an Uber without a second thought.
When Uber first came to the streets of London in 2012, visions of safer, cheaper and convenient rides via the medium of a fancy app captured our hearts, got promptly downloaded to our smartphones and became an integral part of city-life.
But it hasn’t exactly been a smooth ride. They’ve had to pay out around $61.9m since 2009 and a new horror story, often regarding a male driver and an assaulted female passenger, seems to pop up in the news on an all to frequent basis. While Uber maintains that safety is a priority, many female passengers are starting to feel unsafe.
Cue Michael Pelletz, a really nice ex-Uber drier who really wants to make ride-sharing better for women.
He’s launching Chariots for Women on the 19th April, a ride sharing app for women, by women. The app is set to function in a similar way to Uber – you request a ride and watch on the live GPS map as it arrives.
Thorough background checks on all their drivers have been promised and, alongside the picture, car make and license plate number that you get with Uber, Chariot has the added bonus of a safe word feature to ensure maximum safety. We’re not quite sure what types of words these will be just yet but the premise is that if you get in and your driver says banana and your app says pineapple, get out the car. Feeling safer yet?
What’s more, 2% of each and every fare will be donated to a women’s based charity of your choice. So that taxi trip home after one too many tequilas can feel almost virtuous.
It’s being rolled out in America on the 19th, but if Uber’s growth is anything to go by then it could be heading across the pond fairly soon.