Uber for teens: what you need to know about family-friendly rideshare

Uber for teens launch in Australia is set to help busy families, as 60 percent of parents feel pressure to drive their teens to avoid missing out on activities

There’s no doubt parents and families seem busier than ever which makes today’s announcement from Uber Australia an interesting development when it comes to family scheduling.

Following a successful launch across Canada, the United States and Latin America, Uber is bringing their teen ride product to Australia, with an initial launch across the ACT, Tasmania and South Australia, offering busy parents the choice to allow their teens to ride on their own.

Who can use Uber for teens?

To access this service, parents and guardians can invite their teens (aged 13-17) to create a specialised Uber account under their family profile, allowing teens to request their own rides under real-time parental supervision.

Parents can follow these simple steps to get their teen’s account set up:

1. Tap Account > Family to create a Family profile.
2. Tap Invite Family > Teen > Choose contact and select their name from your contacts. (They must be at least 13 years old.)
3. Make sure your payment information is up to date before your teen requests their first ride. You can also set a transportation budget for your teen.

Teens can follow the below steps to set up their account:

1. Once the above steps are completed by the parent or guardian, the teen will receive an invitation to download the Uber app
2. Once the teen finishes the setup process, including their safety onboarding, they can begin using their teen account to request their own rides

Is Uber for teens safe?

Only highly rated driver-partners who have completed hundreds of trips will be eligible to give rides to teens. In addition to the background checks that every driver-partners must have, driver-partners must also hold a valid Working with Children Check or Working with Vulnerable Person Registration (depending on the state), keeping safety at the forefront of every trip completed.

Uber for teen’s key safety features

• Screened and experienced drivers: Only experienced, highly-rated drivers with consistently positive feedback and a valid Working with Children Check or Working with Vulnerable Person Registration (depending on the state) will be eligible to complete trips with teens. Every driver-partner has the ability to opt-out.
• Live trip tracking: Parents/guardians will be automatically notified when their teen requests a trip to reassure them about where their teen is going and who is behind the wheel. They will also be able to monitor the trip via GPS tracking in real-time, so they can follow along their child’s trip from start to finish.
• PIN Verification: A 4-digit PIN Verification will be required for every teen’s trip, providing an extra layer of protection to ensure they’re getting into the right vehicle with the right driver-partner. 
• Expanded communication: During the trip, parents/guardians can call the driver-partner at any time and contact Uber support. 
• RideCheck: Sensors and GPS data are used to detect if the ride goes off course, stops unexpectedly, or ends early. If something like this happens, the Uber app will message the teen and the driver-partner to make sure they’re okay, parents will also receive a notification. RideCheck will be adjusted to be more sensitive during teen trips.
• Audio recording: Once the teen has registered for audio recording through the safety toolkit, audio recording will be automatically enabled for the entire teen trip while keeping privacy protected. To ensure both privacy and safety are protected, the recording will be encrypted and stored on the user’s device, and can only be accessed by Uber’s support team if the teen rider or Driver-partner reports an incident to Uber and chooses to attach the audio file to the report.

Emma Foley, Director of Mobility Operations at Uber ANZ, said: “We’re excited to be introducing young riders to our rideshare services, giving them more independence to make the most out of their favourite activities and avoid missing out on what they enjoy the most.”

“Many of us at Uber are busy parents ourselves so we know all too well how hard it can be to juggle competing priorities. We are pleased to be providing Australian families with a solution that has been tried, tested and trusted by many other families around the world, helping alleviate these common pain points with an alternative transport option built with safety in mind.”

“We encourage parents and their teens to take this opportunity to have an open conversation about safety, leaning on available resources, such as those housed on the Uber for teens website, to educate and make sure their teen is well-informed and ready to travel on their own.”