Uber Now Lets You Book a Ride for Your Teen
Last year, Uber introduced a new way for teens to book Uber rides without having to use their parents’ account. What began as a limited program in 14 cities and metropolitan areas has expanded to more than 250 cities in all 50 states. If your teen needs to get somewhere safe and you can’t drive them there yourself, this is a great option.
According to The Verge , Uber is expanding this program: previously only teenagers could book such rides, which, while useful, was limited. Moving forward, the company now allows parents and guardians to book trips for their teens from their account. That way, if your teen needs somewhere to be, you can book a ride for him and bypass his insistence that his irresponsible friend with a new license drive him instead.
There are other program updates. Now your teen can plan trips, including trips in 90 days or 30 minutes. If you pay for Uber One, you can pass the benefits on to your teen. This includes free Uber Eats delivery and occasional cash back on rides.
Whether you or your teen book a ride, it will come with Uber safety features such as ride start notifications and the ability to track the ride in real time.
This is a great feature and I expect other ride sharing apps to be implemented in the future. (No pun intended.) However, Uber is currently the only service that offers teen accounts at all, let alone the ability to book a ride for your teen. Other services may not want to take on the responsibility of dealing with minors, but in many cases it makes sense for teenagers to have a guaranteed and safe ride wherever they go. Especially in the US, which is heavily dependent on cars. Wouldn’t you rather have your teenager picked up by a trusted driver you can track down than a random 16 year old you can’t?