Does Uber Cause Distracted Driving

The days of standing on a corner to flag down a cab are quickly coming to an end. With new ride services such as Uber, all it takes is the click of an app on your smart phone and a ride is on its way. As convenient as this service is, its drivers may be causing an increase in distracted driving accidents.
Uber taxi services require their drivers to use their phones while driving. The drivers have 15 seconds to get the location of the customer and decide if they can take the fare. All this must be done while continuing to drive. There is added pressure on city taxi drivers to respond quickly, because unanswered consecutive calls result in a temporary suspension from the service.

The creators of Uber contend the app was designed with safety in mind. When a call via an audible tone alerts the driver to a new fare, the driver does not need to look at their device’s screen; they can tap anywhere on the phone to respond. For some states, the app’s usage may violate its hands free only cell phone use laws. It is clear more research needs to be conducted to truly see how drivers of these services are impacted by driving while distracted.

San Francisco has a similar taxi service called Flywheel. A call will go out to several drivers close to a customer and the driver who responds first is awarded the fare. If no one in the group responds within 20 seconds, the call goes out to another set of nearby drivers. This type of system increases the pressure on taxi drivers to instantly respond to calls, regardless if they are driving at the time, or fear losing many fares.

The industry is looking to add the function of voice activated response for these types of services despite the fact that they contend there has not been a marked increase of distracted driving car accidents by either company. However, there are reported cases of distracted driving by Uber drivers and the logical conclusion is the more services like this that are adopted by taxi services, the more the numbers will increase for instances of distracted driving car accidents.