a woman leaning on a car door

Uber is rolling out new rider and payment features for families or people in groups.

The changes, which should automatically appear for anyone using the latest version of the Uber app, take preexisting features to new user friendly levels, while adding useful payment features for people in groups.

With people returning back to travel and moving more often, the timing is excellent, so here’s a look at what’s changing and how it might impact your future movement.

Uber’s New App Features

For families or people who want to form a group, Uber is making it easier to share a single payment method across the group and also to keep track of riders who opt in.

When someone in the group embarks on a ride, all group participants can receive a notification that a ride has started and view real time status information including the route and any changes or cancellations along the way.

Via the changes, up to 10 friends or family members can opt to join an “Uber Family” profile, which creates the opportunity to share payment and ride information.

a woman leaning out of a car door

People could, of course, already share their ride information with a few taps, but for the technologically challenged, this is a handy step in ensuring friends or family get where they need to go, and have a default card to rely on. I can think of a few family members who will benefit from this, immediately.

The obvious thing to note is that people will be able to pay for rides using the shared payment method, so it’s probably not a great idea to start a group, or join a group with people you don’t trust, particularly if the payment method is yours.

See: The Tinder Swindler on why that often doesn’t work out well.

People can start or join shared groups without sharing payment methods too, for what it’s worth. For safety reasons, it can be a great move.

Safety At The Forefront

Safety is a huge concern among travelers all over the world, and the peace of mind that comes with automatic notifications to others that you’re taking a ride, or have made it safely is really meaningful at any age.

For the elderly or younger riders, being able to have family help and assist with the journey is big too. This is a big step in taking features which requires some level of savvy to use and turning them into something almost automatic for people who could benefit.

Gilbert Ott

Gilbert Ott is an ever curious traveler and one of the world's leading travel experts. His adventures take him all over the globe, often spanning over 200,000 miles a year and his travel exploits are regularly...

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4 Comments

  1. Adding new features to the riders is a good thing .Uber is doing everything to keep the customer base.What is uber doing to the drivers with regard to surging petrol prices?

  2. They are doing nothing. Fuel prices are rising daily and drivers are having to bear the cost of that. UBER could either raise fares or simply take less than their current rate of 25 percent of every single ride price..

  3. @M – just saw Uber is adding a surcharge both to rides and Uber Eats delivers to help drivers due to higher fuel costs. Doesn’t appear to be a lot (like 50 cent US added on for each trip or delivery) and is supposed to only last a couple of months but from what I read all this additional money goes directly to the drivers.

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