Uber announces new safety features in wake of rape case

The US-based taxi firm Uber which was banned in the national capital following alleged rape of a 27-year-old woman by one of its drivers, sought the support of its registered users on Saturday.

Uber announces new safety features in wake of rape case

New Delhi: The US-based taxi firm Uber which was banned in the national capital following alleged rape of a 27-year-old woman by one of its drivers, sought the support of its registered users on Saturday.

The development comes two days ahead of the Delhi transport department's ruling, which is likely to come over the fate of Uber’s operations in the national capital. Currently, the mobile app-based cab service is banned in the National Capital Region (NCR).

On microblogging website Twitter, the taxi firm today wrote - “We are ready, stronger & better, and only your support can help Delhi get moving again.”

The taxi firm, in its statement, has also promised various additional levels of security such as re-verifying the details of all its drivers and putting in place a team of safety experts for verification, as well as an incident-response team.

Uber further said it planned to introduce five new steps for verification of drivers. It said it had been working round the clock to make its services better, adding “we wanted to take this opportunity to clarify how Uber works and to update you on our progress.”

It said it would re-check and ensure the details of all Uber Delhi driver-partners were authentic, through police verification. It would also have a local team of “specially-trained safety experts to detect fraud, verify and authenticate driver and vehicle documents and test the validity of our screening”, it added.

“We’re engaging local and global experts to evaluate the most effective background-screening solution across India; pilot programmes are already running in select cities, including Delhi,” it said.

Meanwhile, the government is reportedly working on amending existing transport rules to clarify regulations relating to web-based taxi services such as Uber, Olacabs and TaxiForSure, currently banned across many states.

On December 5, cab driver Shiv Kumar Yadav, employed with the US-based cab service, allegedly raped the 27-year-old finance company executive in the company's car when the victim was headed back to her home in north Delhi's Inderlok area.

Later, Yadav was arrested on December 7 from Mathura in a joint operation by Delhi and Uttar Pradesh Police.

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