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Last week San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón launched a campaign to address the longstanding problem of ridesharing safety, but his proposed solutions left a key one out. No stranger to this topic, we have previously written about one part of this discussion, curbside confusion. As ridesharing app usage becomes ubiquitous as a commuting alternative, the disconnect between driver and passenger becomes an increasingly important problem and ultrasonic tech is uniquely positioned to solve it.

DA Gascón and Mashable did a great job summing up the numerous reasons why a #RideSharewithCare campaign is long overdue. It’s just common sense, and here at LISNR we agree that passenger safety must be the focus in the ridesharing industry with the help of technology. The fact that the government is now officially making moves just further bolsters this movement.

Rideshare companies have several solutions in place, such as window decals and providing the license plate number, color, and make of the car. Lyft takes it a step further and includes colored “amps” for drivers to place on their dashboards that light up with a changeable color to be displayed in a rider’s app. This makes it possible for riders to spot their car at busy intersections after the sun has set. Despite all of these improvements, the timing of this new #RideSharewithCare campaign shows that these solutions aren’t getting to the root of curbside confusion.

In order to ensure that riders and drivers are correctly paired, customizable, secure ultrasonic technology can confirm and verify that the right passenger is getting into the right car. We accomplish this by allowing rideshare companies to embed LISNR technology into their apps using our SDK. Then, when a driver pulls up to the pick up point, the driver’s app can emit an inaudible tone that the rider’s smartphone can ‘hear’, allowing for a verified rider and driver connection.

Beyond the obvious safety benefits, rideshare operators also acknowledge that offline pairing of rider to driver has other benefits including eliminating human error at pick up and negating the need for manual confirmation of the passenger getting in the vehicle.

Want to learn more about how LISNR enables ridesharing companies to provide safer rides? Contact us today.

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