Uber riders will have to take a selfie to prove they’re wearing a face mask
‘We want to be able to verify them with an extra step,’ says company’s senior director of product management Sachin Kansal
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Your support makes all the difference.Uber has announced that it will ask passengers who have previously refused to wear face masks to take a selfie to verify they are wearing one before they are allowed to use the app.
The ride-share company has required both drivers and passengers to wear face masks since May, to help stop the spread of Covid-19, as the US still struggles to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
On Tuesday, the company announced that it will introduce a new component to the app in the US and Canada at the end of September, that will require passengers who have refused to wear a face mask previously to take a selfie to prove they are wearing one.
Uber’s senior director of product management, Sachin Kansal, told ABC News: “If we do have people who are still violating the policy, we want to be able to verify them with an extra step.”
He added: “And if they’re not wearing a mask, they will not be able to take a ride.”
According to ABC, the app will also be able to detect if the mask is not covering a passenger’s nose, and will stop them from accessing the service if that is the case.
In a statement about the new policy, the company said that both drivers and passengers will be able to cancel a journey if either party is not compliant, without facing a penalty.
When Uber’s mask policy was introduced in May, the company added “face detection technology” to its drivers’ app, which required them to prove they were wearing a covering before being allowed online.
Mr Kansal told ABC that the face detection technology is now being introduced for passengers to improve safety, but also to remind people that a face mask is required to use the service.
“We want to continue to educate the users who may not be aware of this policy,” he said. “They’re just coming back, let’s say, and using Uber after a long time.”
Mr Kansal said that the company do not plan on banning passengers who do not immediately comply, and added: “If we find that riders or drivers have been in violation of the policy, we will first educate them. We will send them emails.
“We want to make sure that they actually understand what the policy is. But if we see repeat violation, then we can take further action, including taking them off the platform.”
He confirmed that the pictures taken will delete from the app within four days, and said they are kept for that time period, “in case there is any issue, there is any complaint.”
In order to make it easier for Uber drivers to comply with the policy, the company has distributed more than 30 million masks to at least 1.4 million drivers over the last few months, according to the Daily Mail.
Mr Kansal added that Uber has “provided more than 800,000 packages of disinfectant sprays, wipes, and hand sanitiser to drivers at no cost, including through our partnerships with Clorox, Unilever, and Dettol — with millions more on the way.”
According to Johns Hopkins University some 6.7m people have now tested positive for coronavirus in the US and the death toll has reached 183,689.
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