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This year,Samantha Josephson, a 21-year-old University of South Carolina college student, was kidnapped and murdered after mistakenly getting into a car she believed to be her Uber ride.
The nightmare events led to increased safety measures across the ride-hailing app and its competitor, Lyft.
In response, Uber launched theCampus Safety Initiative, which includes designated pickup zones on college campuses and a "Check Your Ride" push notification.
Uber competitor Lyfthas also expanded safety measures this year, including in-app emergency assistance and increased license plate visibility on the app's interface.
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"Lyft is relentlessly focused on finding new ways to further strengthen safety measures on our platform," said Lyft's Head of Trust & Safety Mary Winfield in a statement at the time.
When entering a rideshare, riders are advised to always check the make, model, and license plate number of the ride and confirm with the driver who the rider is supposed to be. However, if these tips and the new in-app safety measures aren't enough, here are four different smartphone apps that can help keep you safe in a rideshare.
Kitestring is more of a service than it is a smartphone application, existing only via SMS, according to its website. The service is intuitive: users can ask Kitestring to check up on them via text, and they'll text you at the set time. If the user doesn't respond, Kitestring alerts the emergency contacts that have been set up ahead of time.
The free version comes with three "trips" and one emergency contact, while the $3 a month plan has unlimited trips and emergency contacts.
Circle of 6
Circle of 6 was originally designed for college students to prevent sexual assaults, according to its website.
The smartphone app allows users to add up to six contacts to join the "circle" of people who will receive pre-programmed SMS alerts when a certain icon is pressed in the app. Pressing the pin icon sends the text, "Come and get me. I need help getting home safely," with the user's GPS coordinates. Pressing the phone icon sends a, "Call and pretend you need me. I need an interruption," text, and pressing the chat icon sends an, "I need to talk," text.
Life360
Life360 is marketed towards families. The app gives users in the "Circle" real-time access to the location of other members in the group, according to Life360.
If a user ever feels unsafe, they can use the "Help Alert" that instantly sends the user's location to other Circle members. There's also an in-app chat option that makes group communication quicker.
LifeLine Response
LifeLine is an automatic response application. To activate the program, users need to press and hold their thumb on the screen when the app is open. The moment the user's thumb leaves the screen, a disarm code will open. If it's unable to be unlocked, a loud alarm will be set off and authorities will be sent to the location, according to LifeLine.
There's also a Timer Mode that checks in later on if the user can't constantly have their hand on the phone.
The app is free for the first 14 days, and subscription prices then vary based on the duration of the subscription and the number of people in the subscription.
