CINCINNATI — Cincinnati is one of 14 cities that now has a new Uber feature: teen accounts.
Starting Monday, teens between the ages of 13 and 17 can join their parent or guardians' family profile. After completing onboarding and reviewing all safety protocols, they can begin requesting rides.
“It’s about giving the teen some independence and the parents stay in the know. We recommend of course that the parent and teen talk about how they want to use this feature,” said Uber spokesperson Andrew Hasbun.
Hasbun said there are several safety features associated with teen accounts teenagers can’t turn off.
“(The) key feature here is that every time a teenager requests a trip, the parent gets a notification on their phone that their teen has requested a trip in real-time,” Hasbun said. “We also have our pin verification feature mandatory for all teen accounts that helps ensure a teen gets into the right vehicle by providing the unique four-digit pin code that the teen needs to give to the driver in order for the trip to begin.”
Because they are under their parent or guardian's account, parents will be able to track the trip live in the app and call the driver at any time. They will also have access to the driver's information.
“They have the driver’s picture, they have the driver's rating, the license plate, and the make and model of the car,” Hasbun said.
He noted Uber is only allowing drivers who have above a four-star rating to drive teenagers.
“We are allowing highly-rated drivers who have experience, meaning hundreds of trips under their belt. This is not the kind of feature where someone can just sign up and on day one being getting trip requests from teens,” he said.
Another safety feature with teen accounts is RideCheck.
“It looks at whether a trip may go unusually off course, or is taking too long, or something is just not right with the trip. The teen will get a notification in their app asking them if everything is OK and give them access to all the different safety tools including contacting Uber support line or calling 911 from the Uber app, so the 911 dispatcher as all the details about the trip,” Hasbun said.
While the tool is helpful, some guardians like Elaine Hipps aren't comfortable letting their teens take an Uber alone.
“How would he react if something were to go wrong if there was an accident? What would he do,” she said. “I can’t even imagine a 13-year-old in a vehicle with a stranger, and that’s how I would see it.”
Terrance Meadows agrees with Hipps.
“There’s a lot going on in the world, and I got kids of my own and I just wouldn’t trust them getting into a car with a stranger unless they were with me, but by themselves, I’ll pass on that one,” he said.
“They can call the driver, and so in that exchange, they can do what they need to do if someone orders a trip that doesn’t have their parent's permission or blessing,” Hasbun said.
He added teenagers can change their destination, but Uber drivers cannot. Parents would get notified about the change.
Hasbun said they’ve piloted teen accounts in other U.S. and Canadian cities for the past six months. Based on feedback, he said Uber Eats will launch teen accounts in about a week. They are also working on a budgeting feature, so teens can learn how to manage money.
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