The teen safety When traveling alone it is a constant concern for many families in Spain. In fact, according to an internal survey carried out by Uber among 5,000 users in Spain, 86% of parents are worried that something will happen to their children when they travel without them. In fact, 77% admit to having experienced fear or anxiety when their children travel alone, and 98% say they wish they could follow the journey in real time.
The new feature is already operational in more than 100 cities around the world
That is why Uber has just launched a new function in Spain designed to help keep families safe and is already operational in more than 100 cities around the world. With it, parents and guardians can invite their teenagers to create an Uber Teens account, with which they can request rides supervised by an adult and access key built-in safety features, such as real-time communication between parents and driver.
It was initially tested in Canada at the end of 2022 and extended to the United States in 2023. After success in these markets, since 2024 it has been active in Latin America, Asia and Europe, including countries such as France, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Germany and, now, Spain. Here the project starts in 10 cities in which Uber operates: Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Granada, Málaga, Mallorca, Seville, Tenerife, Valencia and Zaragoza. The objective is, as we have known since reason.Whyto be able to extend it to the rest of the Spanish cities in which the company has a presence during the coming months.
These are important functionalities given that, according to the data provided by Uber, 31% feel uneasy not knowing where their child is going and 33% fear that they may get lost. Security is another key factor: 94% of respondents indicate that having a trustworthy driver, and good ratingsit would significantly reduce your worries about your children’s independent travel.
36% of Spanish parents spend an average of between 2-4 hours a week dropping off or picking up their children
As explained by the company in a statement, Uber Teens It is a service that many users have been demanding for a long time and that allows a solution to various circumstances, beyond the trips they may make at night during their leisure time. The survey carried out reveals that a third of Spanish parents (36%) spend an average of between two and four hours a week dropping off or picking up your children from school or extracurricular and leisure activities. For 21% of them, this figure increases to between four and six hours per week. And half wait in the place where their children do sports or leisure activities until they finish.
“We know that the safety of children is a priority for Spanish families. With Uber Teens, we offer a solution allowing teenagers to travel independently under the supervision of their parents.”says Lola Vilas, Country Manager of Uber in Spain.
To communicate this, an advertising campaign with specific actions will not be carried out, but Uber will focus on advertising through its own app and sending emailing to its user database. “Through email campaigns and notifications in the application, we will inform users who already have an Uber account about the availability of the new service upon its launch in Spain”Lola Vilas confirms in statements to reason.Why.
To develop this new service, Uber has had the advice of safety experts such as Safe Kids Worldwide and ParentZone. This organization consulted parents and teenagers across Europe with the goal of helping Uber offer a safe experience from pickup to final destination.
Through their family profile in the Uber app, a parent or guardian can invite their teen to create an Uber Teens account and start requesting rides with the following features:
- Travel tracking. Parents will receive an automatic notification when their teen requests a ride and will be able to monitor the trip in real time in their app
- PIN Verification. Drivers will not be able to start the trip until they enter the correct code in their app.
- RideCheck. To detect if the journey deviates, stops unexpectedly or ends prematurely. If something like this happens, the app will send a message to the teen and the driver to make sure they are okay.
- Expanded communication. Parents and guardians will be able to contact the driver at any time during a trip, as well as the Uber safety line. Likewise, the driver can contact the parents to notify them of any setbacks.
- Only highly qualified drivers. Only drivers who have passed the selection requirements and have a high rating will be able to receive Uber Teens applications.
- Audio recording (optional). Users will be able to record their trip with audio if they wish. The recording will only be accessible if the user or driver reports an incident to Uber and decides to attach the audio file to the report.
“We seek to innovate with functions that make mobility services available to more and more people. With this new option, we provide safe alternatives. “We have already seen very good results in other countries and we are very happy to be able to launch it in Spain”says Lola Vilas.
When we ask her about the objectives or KPIs that have been set with this launch, Lola Vilas explains, in statements to reason.Whywhose main objective is “launch a service that guarantees the safety and tranquility of adolescents and their families, addressing a real need”. From there, in terms of KPIs, “We will analyze the adoption of the service in the first six months and the frequency of use. However, beyond these metrics, our vision is to consolidate ourselves as a multimodal platform that evolves to offer solutions that respond to the needs of our users.”
