Uber now lets you set a person, not a place, as your destination
Say you land on a Friday night flight from New York City to San Francisco and you're meeting up with a friend who's already started the night out.
Rather than text him to have him tell you where he is while you take an Uber into the city, you can now set your destination to a person — not a place. Unless you think of people as places — as Uber CEO Travis Kalanick does — and then just think of it as you're plugging in a person, not an address.
Welcome to Uber's latest update: Uber to Person.
"With Uber, you are going from point a to b. The new Uber to Person feature recognizes that people aren't just going to point b, they are trying to get to each other," Uber product manager Yuhki Yamashita told Mashable.
It's rather simple to set up. Starting Wednesday, Uber users can choose to sync their contacts with the Uber app.
After that step, instead of typing in an address in the "Where to?" box, you can type in a name.
The contact will receive a request to provide their current location. If the person doesn't have Uber, they can still approve to have their location shared with the app.
The person can't move, however. Uber will lock the destination on the static location. It's a one-time location permission and will expire after 30 minutes.
The app will also send the rider's estimated time of arrival (ETA) once the destination is set. If they have Uber, they'll get updates similar to what happens if you directly choose to share your ETA in the app.
The feature was teased as part of the redesign back in November. Kalanick said at a press event that the update is part of the company's mission to help you "feel like you're living in the future."
"Where are you? Where’s that again? These are common questions we ask friends and family when meeting up. If it’s catching up with friends when out of town, meeting your sister at the mall, or joining coworkers for drinks, now you can skip the back and forth. Just Uber directly to them," Uber wrote in a blog post about the update.
Also on Wednesday, Uber released a feature with Snapchat where users can unlock exclusive filters, one of which also allows them to share their ETA with their friends. It's the latest in a series of integrations Uber has made to make its app more useful while riding.
"The integrations in the feed are about what you're doing at your destination and who you're going to be with," Yamashita, the product manager who oversaw the app's redesign, told Mashable.
Uber is rather explicit that you're sharing your location and data, but the company was recently hit with a lawsuit over customer privacy issues. The lawsuit, filed by a former forensic investigator for Uber, alleged that employees of the ride-hailing giant spied on celebrities and former romantic partners.
Topics Uber
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
