Online taxi booking service Uber has tied-up with location-based mobile safety app Safetipin to enable Uber's partner drivers to collect area data across Delhi from February 25 to improve passenger safety. This pilot program will be continued for the next 5 months. Uber drivers will collect night-time road and city conditions using exterior mounted camera phones at regular intervals. Each photograph captured by the drivers will be tagged with a Safetipin safety score based on nine predetermined parameters, including lighting, openness, visibility, security, walk path, crowd and gender diversity and density. The company mentions that it will share this data with the government and work with them to improve safety in the city. The company is expected to extend this program across other markets in the coming months, including Bogotá, Colombia and Nairobi, Kenya. Earlier this month, Uber had updated its app in India and installed a panic SOS button which will alert the local police in case of an emergency. The company also introduced a second safety feature called safety net, which allows users to easily share their trip details and real-time location with up to 5 friends and family members. Last week, Uber had been given seven days to complete their radio taxi license application as per the new regulations by the Delhi Government or face rejection. This was after the Delhi Transport Department had found certain deficiencies in the license applications of Uber, Ola, TaxiForSure and NTL Call Cabs, as per the recently amended Radio Taxi regulations and rejected their applications in the current…
