Day: May 1, 2018

Most of the victims involved in the 103 cases were inebriated or had a few drinks, at least, which is why CNN put a spotlight on how Uber markets itself as a safe way to go home in its report. The ride-hailing giant aired ads that show women taking an Uber for nights out. It even teamed up with Mothers Against Drunk Driving to launch a designated driver campaign urging women to take an Uber instead of driving under the influence.

While 18 of the 103 cases have already been dropped or dismissed, it didn’t include data on complaints that couldn’t be verified with incident reports. And considering CNN was only able to look into 20 states’ documents, that means Uber is likely dealing with a lot more than 103 cases.

An Uber spokesperson told Engadget that it has recently beefed up its safety approach by introducing an emergency button and a safety feature that lets you designate contacts to share trips with in its app. Uber will also start rerunning driver background checks on an annual basis and will keep an eye out for new criminal cases filed against its drivers.

“These stories are horrific and our hearts go out to the victims. We worked with CNN to understand their findings and determined that Uber did 2.4 billion trips in the U.S. in that same period. But even one incident on our platform is too many which is why safety is Uber’s top priority for 2018 and beyond. We recently strengthened our safety approach with new features including an emergency button, driver screening improvements, and the addition of the former Secretary of Homeland Security to head up Uber’s Safety Advisory Board. This is just a start and we are committed to doing even more.”

Uber isn’t the only ride-hailing firm facing these issues, though: CNN also found 18 cases accusing Lyft drivers of sexual assault over the past four years.

To enable gesture control, the user simply has to install the iOS and watchOS apps, pair the iPhone with the helmet over Bluetooth, calibrate the watch with your left- and right-turn gestures using your watch-wielding hand, then you’re good to go. The turn indicators will continue to blink until you shake your hand. All of these actions should be much more intuitive — or at least easier to access — than the original wireless remote control.

As part of the update, the Lumos helmet can also be integrated with Strava and Apple Health apps, which enables automatic cycling tracking in iOS. For those who want to check out this $180 helmet in person, you’ll soon be able to see it at one of the 300 Apple Stores across the US and Europe, or you can simply order online.