Uber: Riders should ask 'What's my name?' before getting into vehicles

BOSTON — Uber’s new initiative not only encourages riders to ask "What’s my name?" before getting into a driver’s vehicle, it’ll soon be rolling out new safety features on the app itself centered around more persistent and frequent notifications to keep riders safe.

The new features soon coming to the Uber app will remind riders about checking their ride in three different ways.

Riders will receive push alerts encouraging them to check the license plate, make and model of the vehicle as well as the name and picture of the driver to confirm it’s the correct person.

The app also expected to start prominently displaying new safety notifications.

"I know there’s been strange things happening," said Yasmeen Abdel-Ghaffar, an Uber rider.

Yesmeen Abdel-Ghaffar is a frequent Uber rider who admits she isn’t as thorough as she could be in checking with the driver before getting in.

“I think there’s a little too much trust on how you use uber and I think if there’s more verification it will be better," Abdel-Ghaffar said.

Uber’s safety initiative comes less than a month after the murder of University of South Carolina student Samantha Josephson, who was last seen March 29 getting in a car she mistook for her Uber ride.

The 21-year-old's body was later found in the woods more than 60 miles away. Nathaniel David Rowland is charged with kidnapping and murder.

The university and Uber have since been working together to craft the new alert system that’ll launch nationwide in the coming days.

There are still questions as to whether Uber and Lyft will take steps to make vehicles more clearly stand out in the future.

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Cox Media Group