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Ride Share: Feature Addition

Added feature aimed to improve safety for female users.

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My Role: 

Ideation, Research, Design &

Prototyping

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Project Brief: 

Allows users to view the profiles of drivers in their area and select their preferred drivers prior to confirming their ride.

Research: â€‹

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In 2019, the popular ride share apps Uber and Lyft released safety reports with data collected over the two-year period between 2017-2018.

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  • Uber cited 5,981 accounts of sexual assault and 19 accounts of fatal physical assault.

  • Lyft reported 4,158 accounts of sexual assault and 10 accounts of fatal physical assault.

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A majority of reported cases involve the rider being the perpetrator and the driver being the victim.

 

  • Female drivers take additional precautions to ensure their safety such as not driving at night, thus, minimizing their income potential.

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A survey of 500 women across the United States found that female riders are also at risk when utilizing ride-shares. (<1% said they never used Uber and 28% reported they never used Lyft.)

 

  • Nearly 45% of female riders prefer female drivers. (9% prefer males and 46% have no preference)

  • 23% of women surveyed reported an uncomfortable encounter with Uber. 15% said the same about Lyft.

  • 13% of female Uber riders said they felt uncomfortable during a ride. 7% said the same for Lyft.

  • Nearly 10% of Uber riders were hit on, 5% said the driver called or texted them after the ride and 8% said they had to get the police involved over a driver's behavior.

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Problems: 

  • Riders ultimately have no say in who their driver will be.

  • Many female riders feel more comfortable with a female driver and vice versa.

  • Female drivers who avoid driving at night to ensure their safety minimize their earning potential as the demand for rides increases at night.

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Solution: 

  • Match female riders with female drivers during periods of increased vulnerability. (nighttime, riding alone, etc.)

  • Allow riders to view the profiles of available drivers in their area prior to confirming their ride.

  • Allow female riders to select preferred drivers, increasing their chance of getting matched with a female driver when desired.

Design Process: 

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Prototypes​

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This feature allows riders to pre-screen all available drivers in their area. Riders can review driver profiles including ratings, and car type. By selecting a preferred driver, a ride request will go to that driver first to increase the chances of matching the rider with a driver they feel comfortable with.

Lessons Learned 

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In theory, I think the objective behind this feature would be beneficial to user safety. However, I don't think my design provides a practical or complete solution. Holes in my design that would need to be addressed if I proceeded with another iteration include:

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  • Women only make up around 20-30% of drivers. From the start, the probability of a female driver working in your area is greatly reduced compared to male drivers.

 

  • The preference feature may be intentionally or unintentionally utilized to perpetrate racial and gender biases.

 

  • What abilities does the driver have? Can they decline a preferred request? Can they set preferences as well?

 

  • How could you prevent riders from requesting a female driver solely with the intent to harm them? Would this be a female only feature? Is that ethical?

 

  • How can you incorporate the safety of nonbinary, gender nonconforming, and trans individuals into the conversation?

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