A new ride sharing service called Safr has launched at the joint downtown campus of the University of Central Florida and Valencia College.
It aims to provide female passengers and children traveling by themselves with a safer ride.
Gert Garman is a driver for the company in Orlando.
Garman says the drivers — most of whom are women — have completed in-person interviews and passed criminal background and motor vehicle history checks.
She says the app also offers safety features including secret colors that are generated with each ride that match a rider with their driver.
"When you approach the car when I as the rider approach the car, I have my drivers name, the drivers car, what it looks like, and the color match."
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And she says the app doesn't stop there-it also has an emergency call button.
"There’s an SOS button that you go in and you program. You can either program it to go to 911 or you can program it to go to like a loved one’s phone like an in case of an emergency kind of thing."
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The company is currently hiring drivers in the Orlando area and will soon begin offering delivery and errand services. It plans on extending to the theme parks.
Uber and Lyft require checks for drivers and offer safety features like tracking software and an emergency call button, but that hasn't kept women from being raped and assaulted by drivers.
Click thelink to learn more about the ride share service.
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