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Uber Will Turn Your Smartphone Into An Automatic Crash Detector (theverge.com)
Uber is introducing a new safety feature called "Ride Check" that will use GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope, and other sensors inside a smartphone to detect whether there has been a vehicle crash. The Verge reports: In the event of a crash, the Uber app will automatically send a notification to a rider's phone to answer a series of questions. If they verify that there has been an accident, the rider will be prompted to call 911. Uber's team of safety operators may also reach out to ensure the rider is safe when the feature is triggered. The feature doesn't require any new permissions because it is linked to the driver's smartphone, rather than the riders. Drivers have the Uber app on more frequently than riders, who typically keep the app on in the background during trips.
Ride Check isn't just for crashes, though. The feature is also triggered if the vehicle stops for a prolonged or unusual period of time. Riders will receive a notification asking them if everything is alright, and based on their response, the app will present a series of options, including a call to 911. The ride-hail company also released a number of other features, including voice commands and an insurance hub for Uber drivers, new ways to mask addresses and phone numbers between riders and drivers, and two-factor authentication to protect a rider's account from malicious hacking.
Ride Check isn't just for crashes, though. The feature is also triggered if the vehicle stops for a prolonged or unusual period of time. Riders will receive a notification asking them if everything is alright, and based on their response, the app will present a series of options, including a call to 911. The ride-hail company also released a number of other features, including voice commands and an insurance hub for Uber drivers, new ways to mask addresses and phone numbers between riders and drivers, and two-factor authentication to protect a rider's account from malicious hacking.
What's the worst that could happen from this trustworthy vendor?
"Um sorry guys, I had my phone on the dash, and it slid into the A pillar when I took a hard turn..."
I wonder what regulatory skirting/ignoring lies in wait for this.
There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
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This company isn't getting anywhere near my phone.
A rape detector.
Get out of my phone!!
So the drivers have to take there eyes off the road to deal with the app now? Some may just run long reds and race trains to get out of it.
So when you're attempting to dial 911 in a dazed state, you'll be interrupted with an accept phone call prompt instead. An AI will ask you some questions, then you'll be put on hold, then someone else will ask you a bunch of questions, then you'll be told to dial 911 and they hang up. Confused since you thought you had dialed 911, you pass out and die before anyone notifies emergency services.
Are people really that dumb that they need someone else to tell them to dial 911? Uber doesn't do it for you, they just tell you to do it. Nice way to skip out on some of the liability of making false emergency calls and a nice way to get sued for not recommending 911 when someone was injured.
Yes... because stuff.. and things.. and nonsense.
Seriously? They will ask for a set of answers? I'm sure the potentially unconscious rider will wake up in time to be grilled by the audit-bot AI assigned to that event/ number. "If they verify there has been an accident." Really? What brain-cell-strapped idiot came up with that mathematical equation?
If accellerometer .and. gyroscope = $bad
then
ask for a response from the rider
elif $noresponse
ask for the response from the rider
elif $noresponse
ask for the response from the rider
elif (you get the picture)
fi
From their definition:
In the event of a crash, the Uber app will automatically send a notification to a rider's phone to answer a series of questions. If they verify that there has been an accident, the rider will be prompted to call 911. Uber's team of safety operators may also reach out to ensure the rider is safe when the feature is triggered.
*BEEP BOOP* Hello user, are you dead?
[no response]
*BEEP BOOP* Your lack of response has been interpreted as "no". Have a nice day.
"If they verify that there has been an accident, the rider will be prompted to call 911"
And if they're unconscious, they're fscked.
I'm sure 911 will really enjoy getting all those automated robocalls for no reason.
Bernie Sanders should add Uber to his corporate cash to play bill, for the cost of every 911 call
They wont.
Get up!
That (using a smartphone for crash detection) has been around for years. I personally use "cradar", an app that texts my coordinates to my daughter's phone if I dump my bike. I have 30 seconds after it's gone off to prevent it from sending the text if the crash isn't bad or I've just dropped my phone.
Why daughter's phone? Because she actually pays attention to her phone. If I sent it to my wife's phone, I could be leaking on the side of the road for hours before she notices.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
"The feature is also triggered if the vehicle stops for a prolonged or unusual period of time. Riders will receive a notification asking them if everything is alright, and based on their response, the app will present a series of options, including a call to 911. "
1) Congrats, you made a "detect hookers" app.
2) If I can reach my phone and interact with it, I'm not having a !@#%'ing emergency. Hell, half the phones on the market have an emergency button combination you can turn on.
3) Considering Uber is so evil Microsoft is playing catch up, I really doubt these features have anything to do with drivers. They'll straight up hire rapists. So the real question is, what actual benefit are they trying to get from this?
Does this imply I can't vigorously shake my phone without getting an embarrassing response, or that I will just have to switch hands ?
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
If the crash detection pops up a prompt for the user to answer some questions, and nobody does, is it smart enough to call 911 anyway? Because somebody responding to on-screen questions means that SOMEBODY was at least conscious enough to respond.
Help 911 this slow train is pulling my star rating down.
People are too stupid to call 911 on their own if there has been an accident?
Seriously, WTF? Answer a series of questions and then prompt the rider to call 911??
Clippy's cousin rears his ugly head. Honestly, why would anyone with the vaguest understanding of technology want to be anywhere near one of those allegedly "smart" so-called "telephones" much less pay for the privilege of being constantly spied on?
I see dead people.
Is there a feature for when the Uber driver murders you? At least to let them know where your shallow grave has been dug?
There is no escape. You are part of the Borg.
Enjoy life Citizen and use Uber every day or it is Room 101 for you.
During the meeting: so what can we do to get even more data from the sheeple?
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
...to test if your smartphone is properly configured as a crash detector, they will instruct one of their self-driving cars to smash into your car!
Aha. Never used Uber (and hope I never have to!), but I'd just delete the app every time before boarding the car. And rinse the phone with bleach thereafter.
And, oh, pay in cash.
Predators.
Everybody is saying that this is a bad idea and it is. While the people ate Uber are assholes, they are not idiots, so WHY did they do that?
It will mean they get less customers, as they will cut of a percentage of them (no matter how small). That means less money.
So why would they do that? They are not a company that does things to be nice just because they are nice people. So who are they sucking up to and why?
The only reason I can think of is that they are sucking up to the drivers and the reason why is because they need more of them. I can imagine that thye are at a point where people who ran Uber start to realize that thye can not make a living of it, while maintaining the car. And having a few bad customers will be enough to tip over to driving less or not at all.
The people who are willing to start driving have a way to find experience of other (ex-)drivers and are able to calculate how much they will make.
So to get new drivers and keep old drivers, it is nice to say "You will only get the best customers. We ban the rest." This will stretch the time that people bare driving with that (lower than) minimal wage for a bit. At least till the next service.
On the other hand I could be completely wrong and the Uber managers are complete bafoons that do "Management by 8-ball".
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Having the sum total of mankind's knowledge in your pocket is a heady drug.
Good-bye
This will be active on THE DRIVERS phone. Not the passengers. Geez people, go with the ScareCrow and ask for a brain.
Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
Justification for continual 24/7 monitoring
Just sayin...
Are you going to crash? The app will sound a klaxon similar to Star Trek: TOS bridge klaxon; the app is called CRAPP for crash app.
The next point release will have warnings e.g. Collision imminent -- first warning, followed by Collision imminent in 3 seconds, followed by
Two...One
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
I immediately thought of Clippy also. Cheery and wanting to help, while being absolutely useless and annoying.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Having the sum total of mankind's knowledge in your pocket is a heady drug.
True, although access is sometimes a problem, and sorting out all of mankind's knowledge from all of mankind's excrement can be quite a chore.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Sounds like someone bought platium medical insurance
My bet is "Are you still alive?"
My sonâ(TM)s Uber driver caused this crash. He did not survive. No direct word from Uber yet. https://globalnews.ca/news/4422507/nicholas-cameron-toronto-uber-training/