Uber and YWCA Canada offer rides to help underserved communities

Uber Canada has partnered with the non-profit Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) Canada to help young women and gender diverse people in the country arrive at essential meetings and interviews. The ride-sharing service will provide rides for things like job training, medical appointments, and job interviews. It's part of Uber's Community Impact Initiative, and it's available for residents in Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. Those who need a ride can get in touch with YWCA so that they can coordinate with Uber. 

The two parties previously collaborated on a project that raises awareness about gender-based violence. They provide training and resources for support programs and services around the country.

Source: YWCA

You can no longer book Uber rides through Google Maps

One of those neat little tricks hidden within Google Maps is being able to book your Uber ride right from the navigation app. Unfortunately, that no longer exists. Eighteen months after the feature was introduced, Google posted a new support page that states plainly that “You can no longer book Uber rides directly in Google Maps.” The feature was previously accessible when you searched for a location and a tab for ride-sharing existed where you could book the ride from there. This tab still exists but now it’ll only show you an estimate of your ride and then it’ll send you out to the Uber app if you want to book a ride.

Even with 17 different services supported within the ride-sharing tab, Uber used to be the only app that will let you pay for a ride and complete the trip right from within Google Maps. It’s not known why Google and Uber decided to end this program.

Source: Ars Technica

Facebook product director joins Uber as head of driver product

Under Uber’s current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, the ride-hailing service has placed heavy emphasis on its drivers. But the company has been without a head for its driver product division since December, when Aaron Schildkrout left after the company wrapped its 180 days of change driver campaign. That just changed as former Facebook product director for video and Facebook Live, Daniel Danker, joins Uber. He will serve as a senior director and head of driver product. Danker will be in charge of planning, strategy, and execution for the said division. He has been working in Silicon Valley for a while already. Between 2000 and 2010, he worked in a couple of roles at Microsoft and left when he was a director of development and operations. He found his way to BBC in 2010 and then went to Shazam where he served as chief product officer for almost three years.

“Drivers are the heart of the Uber experience, and Daniel’s passion for our mission and deep product knowledge will ensure we continue to improve and innovate on their behalf,” Uber Head of Product Manik Gupta told TechCrunch in a statement.

Self-driving Uber vehicle kills pedestrian in Arizona

A self-driving Uber vehicle has reportedly hit and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona. The vhicle, which was allegedly in autonomous mode had a driver, who was not driving, behind the wheel. Local news reports

 

say a woman was walking outside of a crosswalk when she was hit. She was taken to a hospital where she died.

Arizona has been a destination for autonomous driving pilot projects and has a rather relaxed mandate to allow testing. Uber has reportedly ceased all autonomous driving tests in the area while investigations are going on. Uber has also halted similar initiatives in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Toronto and Phoenix. This is the first pedestrian casualty resulting from autonomous vehicles failing to sense a person and killing them.

An incident involving a Tesla and its autopilot feature (not autonomous driving) resulted in a crash that killed the driver last year.

Source: Mashable