American Expatriate Costa Rica

Uber will ask identity verification from clients who only pay in cash

Uber announced three changes to the mobile application for users in Costa Rica. The changes focus on users who only pay in cash, the ability to share travel information with other drivers and the creation of internal chat.

The application, which causes conflicts in the private passenger transport sector, has 16 thousand drivers and an average of 500 thousand users.

However, there is a heated debate about the lack of regulation to allow its operation.

The three changes are:

-User Verification: According to Uber, those new users who are going to pay in cash and who do not have a credit card registered in the profile, will have to confirm their identity through the verification of their Facebook account.

This functionality comes to complement the community guides, the two-way qualification system (driver-user and visceversa) to help ensure the safety of our community,”

said the company.

Those who do not have social networks, must confirm their identity using a digital payment mechanism.

-Share travel with a partner: It allows drivers to share their travel information with whoever they want. Data such as contact details, registration number and location on the map may be shared. This option already works in Mexico, Brazil, Santiago de Chile and Bogota in Colombia. It will be ready in Costa Rica in September.

-Chat in the application: Real-time messaging for drivers and users to be contacted faster and more effectively. There is no need to share personal information.

To send a message to your driving partner who is on the way, the user must go to Uber’s feed and select ‘contact’ and then ‘chat’.

When the driver receives a message from the user, it will read aloud. Collaborating partners can acknowledge the message with a thumb up.

crhoy.com