Bengaluru-based ride-hailing unicorn Ola has announced the launch of its AI-enabled safety feature ‘Guardian’ in 16 cities in India along with Perth in Australia, reported Inc42.
The new feature will be available across Indian cities including Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh.
Talking about Guardian, Arun Srinivas, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, Ola, said, “Guardian brings together the precision of Artificial Intelligence with the assurance of human intervention, enabling a uniform and safe mobility experience across the markets we operate in,”
He further said, “Our safety initiatives such as Emergency Button, facial recognition system, for driver authentication, and one-time-password (OTP) system, are innovations that have all been built in India and now lead the global benchmarks for the mobility industry.”
Guardian tracks the rides in real-time to automatically report any irregularities during the trip. These irregularities like prolonged stops and unexpected route deviations are then sent as alerts to Ola’s safety response team. The safety of the rider can then be ensured by reaching out to the rider in real-time and offering on-the-call assistance.
This feature is being rolled out after successfully running as a pilot programme across Bengaluru, Pune and Mumbai since September 2018. The ride-sharing startup is looking to expand the feature to more cities in the coming months.
Rider safety has been a growing concern in India amidst reports of sexual assaults by cab drivers. Increased focus on rider safety will help allay the fears among Ola customers.
Ola’s competitor Uber also has a number of security features like emergency assistance button, 24/7 Uber safety helpline and rider and driver safety toolkit to ensure the safety of its customers during their rides.