Uber now allows you to order cars for your elderly parents and drunk friends
The days of playing phone tag with Uber drivers and drunk friends are over.
Uber has finally added a feature that allows you to order a ride for someone else, the company announced on Tuesday. But critically, this new features puts the Uber you ordered in contact with the person who is riding, rather than directing all communications to you by default.
Ordering a ride for someone else works the same way as ordering a ride for yourself. But now a new "who will be riding?"prompt allows you to add someone else by name or number.
Then, the app will text details like the make and license plate number of the car to the person taking the ride, who doesn't need to have a smartphone. That means you will no longer have to play coordinator when you order a ride for someone else.
While Uber is marketing the feature as something for senior citizens and their loved ones to use, the feature can be useful in many more cases like sending a drunk friend home or having a friend order you a car when your phone is out of battery.
The new feature is not Uber's first attempt to make ordering rides for other people easier. The company previously had a similar feature for senior citizens through partnerships, but it's now completely built in to the app and available to all users.
The feature rolls out on Tuesday in the United States and over 30 other countries.
Topics Uber
Freia Lobo wrote about Tech News for Mashable in NYC. You can follow her on twitter at @freialobo
