Ola rolls out real-time ride monitoring system to enhance rider safety

Ride hailing app Ola Tuesday said it has launched a real-time monitoring system for riders that will keep track of route deviations and unexpected and midway stops to ensure passenger safety.

Under project 'Guardian', all on-going trips will be tracked by analysing ride indicators that include route deviations, unexpected and midway stops, amongst others.

Based on the indicators and time of travel, safety triggers will be created which will be attended to immediately by Ola's Safety Response Team (SRT), it said in a statement.

Post analysing the data, the SRT will connect with the customer to assess any potential unsafe ride and provide assistance as required, it added.

"Safety and innovation are embedded in Ola's DNA...Ola will continue to innovate and use AI and machine learning algorithms to further enhance the Guardian project as the project is rolled out nationally," Ola VP (Business Excellence and Safety) Ankur Agrawal said.

The project has been piloted in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Pune and will go live in Delhi and Kolkata by the end of next month. It will be rolled out in other cities by the end of the year.

In addition, Ola said it is also working with government authorities to map dark spots and unsafe routes into the monitoring platform to enhance the monitoring system's performance.

"This capability will further enable Ola's SRT to determine vulnerabilities and augment safety protocols," it added.

Safety of passengers, especially women riders, has been a prime concern for ride hailing companies as multiple incidents have been reported across various cities.

Ola, which competes with American rival Uber in Indian and other international markets, said it is also rolling out "selfie authentication" for its driver partners.

It said driver partners will be required to validate their identity by taking a selfie and sharing it with the Ola team through the app that will then be compared to the image in the records.

Impersonators will have their platform access revoked and will be subject to investigation, the statement said.

Also, the rider app has been updated to include larger photos of driver partners, enabling customers to verify driver partner's authenticity and report impersonators.

Ola will also initiate offline audit checks at transport hubs including airports, railway stations and bus stands by a trained audit team to authenticate driver partners as well as inspect the state of the car.

Having begun the initiative at Hyderabad and Bangalore airports, offline audit checks will be rolled out to more transport hubs across India in a phased manner, Ola said.