Uber Offering Passengers, Drivers Emergency Text-To-911 Service In LA County
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Beginning Thursday, Uber passengers and drivers in Los Angeles County will be able to text their emergency to 911 from within the rideshare app.
The 911 assistance button, located in Uber's Safety Toolkit, will allow them to choose between calling or texting 911 in an emergency.
When users select the text to 911 button, emergency dispatchers will receive information including the the vehicle type, its current location and its destination.
Users can also include additional information, such as what the emergency is about. Dispatchers will be able to stay in constant communication with users before emergency responders arrive on scene.
Bell and Bell Gardens are the only two cities in L.A. County which will not have access to the service, Uber said in a news release Thursday.
The service is also being piloted in Minnesota and Indiana.
"In an emergency, every second counts," said Sachin Kansal, Uber's Head of Safety Products in a statement. "This new addition to the app will allow Uber users to reach out to 911 in situations where they may not be able to make a phone call."
This is an upgrade on a similar program which launched last November in the city of L.A. in which riders could press an emergency button within the Uber app which immediately sent their location to 911 dispatchers. The information also included the name of the driver and the car. Once the call disconnected, police would have that information for 10 minutes only before it was purged.
The text to 911 system began rolling out in Los Angeles County back in November of 2017.