If you are an Uber driver and/or Uber partner, this post is important because Uber is now using speed sensors to monitor the actions of drivers. This will help them determine if the drivers are speeding too fast, or driving in a harmful way.

What it Means for Drivers and Passengers

For a company that deals with conveying people from one place to another, safety is an important policy and over-speeding is a threat to that. In Virginia for example, Virginia’s Reckless Driving Speeding law is found at Virginia Code § 46.2-862. It states that: “a person shall be guilty of reckless driving if driving a motor vehicle on the Virginia Road either:

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At a speed of 20 miles per hour or more in excess of the applicable maximum speed limit
In excess of 80 miles per hour regardless of the applicable maximum speed limit.”

In India, Times of India reported that:“Those found driving at speeds up to 20 Kmph over the prescribed limit will be booked under the speeding law. Those racing at speeds higher than that will be charged under dangerous driving and issued court challans. This is punishable with aRs 1,000 fine and up to six months in jail”

On the surface,the speed sensors doesn’t seem like a big deal, but upon taking a deeper look, you realize that it could mean a big deal for the passengers and drivers across the globe. Safety of both occupants in the vehicle might be assured with strict adherence to these rules and laws.

The pilot program uses gyroscopes and GPS built into passenger and driver smartphones to get an accurate picture of how safe the car is being driven.

How Do Speed Sensors Help Passengers?

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Passengers’ safety is a major concern for Uber. The speed sensors were put in place so that Uber can identify dangerous drivers and use this data to investigate and get them off the road as soon as possible.No matter how good Uber drivers are known to be, there’s always going to be a few bad eggs. Some drivers are notorious and would drive in a ‘not-very-professional’ way. Before now, they could have gotten away with it but with the speed sensors, passengers can relax knowing that Uber is on the lookout and ready to take out any driver who poses a threat to passenger safety. In fact, mere knowledge of the existence of this invention will prompt reckless Uber drivers to take caution while the careful ones are going to take even more precautions while driving.

Thinking of UberVIP, a service where the best Uber drivers are linked up with the best riders, I can’t help but imagine the endless improvements that this upgrade would offer as regards selecting who should be considered ‘best’ and suitable for such service.

How Does it Help Drivers?

Before now, Uber based its judgment of driver practice on the reviews given by passengers. When passengers give a low rating or complain directly via email, Uber claims that they usually investigate before taking action against such drivers. However, we all know that there isn’t much data that they could base investigations on. Therefore, one can say that they simply take the passengers word for it and take due action. That procedure would surely be reviewed now that there’s a sensor to monitor driver performance. As reported by Wired, Uber said the data it was collecting could be used to “review” complaints. If a passenger says a driver accelerated too fast and broke too hard, Uber could use the data to confirm if this is actually true. If Uber searches the data and they find that such claims are false, you can be assured that any harm that might have been done to your rating because of that claim would be reviewed.

Generally, this new development would ensure safety of both drivers and passengers, and this proves that Uber is continuing to optimize the Uber business model.

We would love to hear what you feel about this innovation. To air your views, please use the comment box

About the team

Founded in 2014 by Malik Akande, a former Accenture employee, the Uberkit team is dedicated to maximize the profit and ROI of the entrepreneurial minded uber partner looking for the right components to put together an uber business plan, visit www.uberkit.net. The “Own an Uber black fleet kit” and“Grow your UberX Business Kit” was designed and developed primarily by Malik Akande for uber entrepreneurs looking to give you a true answer to the question: How much do uber drivers make ?

-by Ola John and edited by NkiruEnemchukwu