Latest news with #safetymeasures
The Verge
6 days ago
- Automotive
- The Verge
Uber making it easier for women riders and drivers to find each other
Most Uber trips end without incident, but for many women, the threat of sexual harassment and assault looms large. According to Uber's own data, thousands of women have been victims of sexual violence in an Uber vehicle over the years. Today, Uber is taking a step to mitigate that risk by making it easier for women to request drivers who are also women. Uber is creating multiple ways to do this. First, just by opening the app, women customers will see a new option to request a woman driver. If they're booking a ride in advance, they'll also be able to select a woman driver. And they can adjust their settings to indicate a preference for a woman driver in all circumstances. Selecting that preference could increase wait times, as most Uber drivers are men. If time is of the essence, women can always opt for another ride with a faster pickup. The feature is not exclusive to riders. Women drivers can also adjust their settings to request women passengers, including during peak earning periods like evenings. If they want to receive trip requests from all riders, they can turn the preference off at any time. The new feature will roll out first in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Detroit over the next few weeks. As a safety measure, Uber requires that both riders and drivers verify their identity before using the app. However, if a woman thinks she's being paired with another woman, either rider or driver, and a man shows up, Uber recommends they cancel the ride and report the incident to the company. This isn't the first time Uber is allowing women to pair up through the app. The company first released its Women Rider Preference feature in Saudi Arabia in 2019, a year after the nation lifted its ban on women driving. Since then the feature has been introduced in 40 countries. The challenge is to make the service work 'reliably,' even while dealing with gender-based preferences, said Camiel Irving, Uber's VP of Operations for the US and Canada. 'Most drivers are men, so we've worked to ensure this feature was truly usable in different places around the world,' Irving said in a post. 'We tested, listened, and refined it in markets like Germany and France, adapting the feature to real-world rider and driver behaviors. As a result, in a first for the industry, we're able to launch more reliable features that offer women riders multiple ways to be matched with a woman driver.' Since 2019, Uber has released safety reports that disclose the number of reported incidents of sexual harassment and assaults that take place in its vehicles. Its last report, released in 2024 and covering the years 2021–22, said there were 2,717 incidents of 'serious sexual assault and misconduct,' a decrease of 22 percent from the previous report. It's a problem that has been plaguing the industry for years. In a 2022 feature in The Verge, dozens of women rideshare drivers spoke about their experiences with harassment and assault. Many said they have taken to carrying pepper spray or other defensive weapons in their vehicles in defiance of the app company's policies banning such items. All of the drivers said that they do not feel completely protected or supported by the companies on whose platforms they conduct their business. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Andrew J. Hawkins Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Ride-sharing Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Transportation Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Uber
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Yahoo
Roblox rolls out new AI-powered safety measures to protect teens
The online gaming platform Roblox announced new safety measures tor teenagers. The new "age estimation technology" will require users to take a selfie video which will be analyzed by AI to estimate their age. This comes after Roblox came under fire over a 27-year-old man who was was accused of kidnapping a ten-year-old he met on the gaming platform. Solve the daily Crossword
Times
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Times
‘Megaquake' that could kill 300,000 is coming, Japan warned
Japan is still unprepared for an expected 'megaquake' that could kill almost 300,000 people despite the authorities having made a basic preparedness plan for such a disaster a decade ago. There is a 75 to 82 per cent chance that a massive Nankai Trough earthquake will happen off the Pacific coast in the next 30 years, a government panel said in January. Worst-case scenarios include 298,000 fatalities, 2.35 million buildings collapsing and damage worth $2 trillion (£1.4 trillion). On Tuesday the government again endorsed a basic plan from 2014 to prevent a widespread catastrophe, but said the steps taken so far would reduce the death toll by only 20 per cent. The state has now called for the implementation of several safety measures over the next decade to reduce the potential death toll by about 80 per cent. Shigeru Ishiba, the prime minister, told a government meeting: 'It is necessary for the nation, municipalities, companies and non-profits to come together and take measures in order to save as many lives as possible.' The measures include strengthening homes in areas vulnerable to strong tremors and high tsunami waves. Better evacuation facilities will also be prepared. The government is demanding annual progress reports giving updates on 200 sites earmarked for improvement. The Philippine Sea plate is being thrust under the Eurasian plate along the 800km Nankai Trough. The tectonic feature has caused many earthquakes over the centuries and big ones happen roughly every 100 to 200 years. Magnitude 8.0 earthquakes along the trough in 1944 and 1946 left thousands dead and injured. Although scientists cannot predict exactly when quakes will strike, many tourists are staying away from Japan on the advice of a manga artist who apparently predicted the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that devastated northeastern Japan in March 2011. More than 18,000 died. Originally published in 1999, The Future I Saw by Ryo Tatsuki is based on the artist's dreams. The work was updated in 2021 and predicts the next disaster will occur on Saturday. It suggests that a massive seabed rift will open between Japan and the Philippines, generating tsunamis three times as tall as those in the 2011 quake, which reached as high as 40m.
Daily Mail
26-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Urgent warning over record highs of deadly infection spread by dodgy cheese - experts urge Britons to adopt vital safety measures
Health chiefs have urgently warned Britons to adopt safety measures after cases of a dangerous food poisoning bug have reached the highest level in a decade. New figures from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) show a 17.1 per cent rise in salmonella and campylobacter infections across England between 2023 and 2024. These infections are usually caught by eating contaminated food such as poultry, meat, eggs, raw fruit and vegetables, as well as unpasteurised milk or cheese. People can die from salmonella via dehydration or if the bacteria enters the bloodstream, which can lead to sepsis — a life-threatening reaction. In response to the surge in cases, the health officials have issued key safety measures for businesses and households. These include lowering the guidance on time and temperature on product labels, and chilling food below 5C. People should also clean food equipment and surfaces thoroughly and avoid cross-contamination through things like re-usable shopping bags, knives and chopping boards, cloths and work surfaces. You should also eat food by the 'use by' date on the label even if it looks and smells fine, and wash their hands before and after preparing food. Those most vulnerable such as
NHK
26-06-2025
- Automotive
- NHK
Japan transport ministry to strengthen wrong-way driving countermeasures
Japan's transport ministry has designated about 190 interchanges and expressway rest stops as priority points to prevent wrong-way driving. The ministry says there were 220 cases of drivers going in the opposite direction on expressways in 2024. In one instance in April of this year, there was a multi-vehicle accident caused by a wrong-way driver on the Tohoku Expressway in Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo. The ministry and an expressway operator have designated 189 interchanges and expressway rest stops nationwide as places where preventive measures will be implemented against wrong-way driving. The designated areas include interchanges that are similar to the one where the driver who caused the multi-vehicle accident in April is believed to have entered. Other designated areas are places where accidents caused by wrong-way drivers have resulted in deaths or injuries, as well as multiple cases of reverse running took place. The ministry and the expressway operator plan to install speed bumps in the designated areas to alert drivers that they are going in the opposite direction.
