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Uber's latest weapon in its quest for world domination is a children's toy
Bop it, twist it, tap it… It’s the children’s toy from 1996.
12.38pm, 26 Jan 2016
12.9k
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RIDE-SHARING APP Uber has revealed new measures it is taking to curb drunken passengers disturbing their drivers.
Distracted drivers cause thousands of road deaths worldwide every year and the taxi app company feel the children’s toy Bop It could be the remedy to their problem.
An Uber experiment in Charlotte, North Carolina has seen drivers introduce the noisy toy into the backseat of their taxis for late night journeys to entertain passengers and discourage them from distracting the driver.
First released in the mid-1990s, Bop It is designed to be engrossing for children and the mix of nostalgia and loud noises appears to be registering well with Uber passengers.
A major pitfall Uber has suffered from in recent years has been driver and passenger safety. Incidents such as drivers assaulting passengers, and vice versa, have marred the company’s rise since 2009.
Uber’s chief security officer Joe Sullivan said ensuring the safety of all parties is a top priority and distracting passengers is an approach that is producing results.
An intoxicated rider who is engaged in something interesting is less likely to be irritable and aiming aggression at the driver.
Uber plans to use smartphone gyrometers to investigate complaints Andrew Matthews
Andrew Matthews
Improving safety is a two way street, however, with Uber also experimenting with new methods of investigating passenger complaints about dangerous driving they experience.
A statement on the company’s website reveals a new pilot programme that will use technology in smartphones to detect if drivers are speeding and even if the car brakes suddenly.
“Gyrometers in phones can measure small movements, while GPS and accelerometers show how often a vehicle starts and stops, as well as its overall speed,” the statement reads.
If a rider complains that a driver accelerated too fast and broke too hard, we can review that trip using data. If the feedback is accurate, then we can get in touch with the driver.
@Aire Dezamba: it’s funny that so many areas there is no money for. Yet every budget , there is over an extra half billion for an already insane welfare spend …
An Garda Siochana have enough to tackle without being involved in the issues involving public transport. Ticket checks by inspectors on Dublin Bus are as rare as they’ve ever been. Anti social behaviour, drug use and dealing and fare evasion are rife on our public transport system and no Minister give a flying fcuk because they don’t use it, unless it’s first class service on Irish Rail. Meanwhile the general public run the gauntlet going about their business and hope they get home from their days work with their belonging in tack and their clothes odour free of smoke. It’s time for a dedicated transport police policy.
@Paul Linehan: I was on the luas going to Broadstone there was a ticket check on the way there and another one on the way back I returned on the red line with no sign of a check on either side.
FFS I’ve been saying it for years as it’s been everywhere else in the world for years. Fukin no brainer ideas take generations to be seen as sensible in this country.
So the only alternative is when public service vehicle’s been stoned is to make all of the Communities suffer by pulling the service? You put that against Ministerial cars been stoned you will get a swift reaction from the Garda .Two sets of rules for the same job.
Cosy relationship with the government in the top brass of the Gardaí, any attempt to usurp the elite and offer another force to compare the performance of the Gardaí will obviously be met with reluctance. Charlie Flanagan acting as a mouthpiece for those in charge of the Gardaí. Why does the article not have a quote from the Garda commissioner on this proposal?
@BreadBasketCase: harbor police were disbanded against Garda wishes. Airport police are glorified security and an Garda siochana has repeatedly called for the airport police to become a fully fledged police force.
Government to go into preparation overdrive in coming days to counter US tariff blowback
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Actor Val Kilmer, star of Top Gun and Batman Forever, dies aged 65
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