It would be recalled that in April 2023, an Uber driver identified as Aman Sood, in India, captured himself being attacked by one of his passengers.
Sood, who claimed to have been an Uber driver for more than a year at the time the incident happened, recalled that shortly after he began the ride, the passenger became abusive after he took a right turn instead of a left.
"He said he was an Uber driver as well. And he know(s) better than me. I told him, 'No need to be rude, I can turn back if you want,'" Sood explained.
Video from Sood’s car camera then shows the passenger striking him repeatedly on the neck. "He pulled my jacket on the head, and continuously (kept) attacking on my neck," Sood said, adding that he managed to pull off his clothes on his upper body before "he (threw) me on the floor and he ran away."
Sood’s awful experience with his passenger led to calls for better protection protocol for Uber drivers and passengers.
In what appeared to be a solution to unsafe trips, Uber partnered with Sety to leverage technology to protect its users.
“Safety is at the heart of what we do at Uber and over the years. As a result, we are leveraging technology to keep our drivers and riders safe,” Tope Akinwumi, the Country Manager for Uber in Nigeria, stated while addressing journalists in Lagos.
He further disclosed that Uber would soon launch an audio recording feature in Nigeria, which would allow its users to share audio of their trip as evidence in the case of a safety incident, something that drivers had been asking for.