• Uber South Africa has launched teen accounts locally.
• Uber for teens is only for riders aged 13 to 17, and can only be set up by a parent or guardian.
• There are safety features like live trip tracking, minimum ratings for drivers, and spending limits embedded in this newly launched offering.

Uber has launched a new solution for South Africa in the form of Uber for teens.

The solution is available today locally, and should be accessible to all account holders in order to create a paired profile for those aged 13 to 17. It is accessible across the country, and is not simply limited to the major cities in SA, as it caters for smaller towns too.

As people may or may not know, creating an Uber account requires you to be 18 years of age or older, so Uber for teens specifically addresses the need for parents/guardians to give their children a level of independence when making use of the ridesharing platform.

To that end, only a parent/guardian is able to create an Uber for teens profile that is linked to their account. As such, billing happens from the parent account, with the ability to add spending limits too.

The Uber for teens profiles only feature three pieces of information – date of birth, full name, and a contact number. The only rider verification elements that will be taking place, are for the parent/guardian doing the onboarding.

These profiles also only open up access to a scaled-down version of the Uber app, so not all features will be available.

That said, it does have a few specific always-on safety elements that will prove critical for parents/guardians. These include the fact that before a ride can begin after pickup, a pincode verification is required, similar to Uber Connect.

According to Uber South Africa, only highly rated drivers with solid histories will be able to utilise this new solution, which they have to opt-in to as well.

On top of this, Uber for teens will facility live trip tracking, as well as push notifications being sent to parents/guardians throughout the trip. Added to this is the fact that end destinations cannot be changed by the driver, any veering off-route or prolonged stops are flagged, and parents/guardians have the ability to contact drivers, as well as deny or cancel trips from their own device.

Uber South Africa expects to see significant uptake of this new solution, so it will be interesting to see just how many profiles are onboarded over the coming months.