When Sydney Ford learned that a former University of South Carolina classmate had been killed after mistaking a stranger’s car for an Uber ride, she started thinking about how easy such a mix-up could be.
“You never know who you’re getting in the car with,” said Ford, who’s now in law school studying to become a defense attorney, to the Washington Examiner. “Lyft signs and Uber signs can all be purchased online, and any car can pull up to an area where a lot of students or other people are waiting for a ride-share, like a downtown area, and just see who falls for it.”
The solution she proposed on a Change.org petition: adding QR codes such as those used on digital movie and concert tickets to the apps so that drivers and riders could match them, garnered support from 72,000 people by April 5.
It joins safety precautions such as the #WhatsMyName initiative backed by the university after the late March killing of Samantha Josephson highlighted the risks of taxi and ride-sharing services, in which rider and driver are typically strangers.
Josephson, a 21-year-old from New Jersey who would have graduated in June, was last seen getting into a black Chevrolet Impala outside a bar in downtown Columbia, S.C., at about 2 a.m. on March 29, according to state police.
She had used the Uber app to request a ride home, officers said, and apparently believed the Impala had come in response.
Her body was found that afternoon in a rural area about an hour away, and the man police said drove the vehicle, 24-year-old Nathaniel Rowland, was arrested after a traffic stop March 30 and charged with murder.
While Rowland didn’t actually work with San Francisco-based Uber, the company has grappled with security concerns involving its own drivers in the past.
Eight members of Congress, including former Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley, inquired about its safety standards and those of four other ride-sharing firms last year after a CNN report that 103 Uber and 18 Lyft drivers had been accused of sexually abusing or assaulting passengers over a four-year period.
“As ridesharing becomes more ubiquitous, it should be in our shared interest to ensure these spaces are measured by the highest standard in safety,” the lawmakers wrote.
Uber, which boasts 75 million riders worldwide and 3 million drivers, didn’t respond to a message seeking comment on Friday. The firm has posted safety tips on its website and the social media platform Twitter reminding riders to make sure license plates, driver photos, and driver names match the information on their app before getting into any car.
It also encourages users to take advantage of the app’s “share status” feature to inform friends and relatives of trip details.
At Lyft, which is also based in San Francisco and has nearly 19 million riders, “the safety of our community is our top priority,” said Kaelan Richards, a spokeswoman. “Since Day One, we have worked hard to design policies and features that protect both drivers and passengers.”
In addition to offering users information that include their driver’s photo and the vehicle’s make, model, and license plate number, Lyft drivers have the Amp, a display that sits on a car’s dashboard and changes colors — including green, orange, and purple — in sync with passengers’ apps.
While there’s risk involved in getting into any stranger’s car, that applies to traditional taxis as well as ride-share vehicles, Matthew Bradley, regional security director for travel-risk assistance firm International SOS, told the Washington Examiner.
“Overall, I think the ride-share services are safe,” he said. “They can be useful, and they are a good alternative in certain locations. I would consider anywhere in the U.S. to be one of those locations.”
He recommended users take full advantage of ride-sharing apps’ security features, including sharing trip details with friends or family. Along with confirming vehicle information in the app, he said, riders should also ask who the driver expects to pick up and refuse to get in if he or she can’t provide the correct name.
That’s the point of the #WhatsMyName campaign, and a practice University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides urged the school’s 34,000 students to adopt. “There is a lesson we must learn that will honor Samantha and keep us all safer,” he wrote in a letter to students.
It’s a lesson that has resonated around the country, including Atlanta, Ga., where Ford studies law. Several students attending a school event after Josephson’s death were shaken up enough that they reminded each other to travel in groups and verify vehicle information if they used ride-shares, she recalled.
A digital QR code would eliminate some of the potential for confusion, Ford said, particularly when drivers trade cars or use rentals and the license plate and vehicle information doesn’t match what’s in the app.
Even if the idea doesn’t take off, she said, #WhatsMyName is a precaution all ride-share passengers can take.
“The death of a fellow student, and someone that I knew of and someone that I had talked to, hit pretty hard,” said Ford, who took a political science class at USC with Josephson. “I’ve noticed even in this area a lot of people talking about it and concerned and thinking that something like that could happen to them as well.”
