DAYTON — This summer teens in Dayton will have a new way to get around, but not everyone is on board with the idea.
Monday Uber launched a new feature that would allow teens aged 13-17 to request rides with parental supervision.
The new teen accounts are available in over a dozen cities— three of them are in Ohio.
Surrie Murphy has been an Uber driver for the past two years in the Dayton area.
As a mother and grandmother, she’s no stranger to driving people around.
>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Uber launches accounts for teens in Dayton
“I have the love for people. Yes, I do,” Murphy said.
During her time Ubering she’s driven more than 2,700 trips. Now she’ll get to see younger demographic pop up in her requests.
“Sometimes we can’t always be there for our children and they need rides back and forth as well. So I support it,” Murphy said.
Uber said the idea was a way to help out busy parents and guardians.
“We know that sometimes shuffling teens around can be almost like a second job and we wanted to give those families and parents another option,” Mariana Esteves, lead production manager at Uber said.
Uber shared ways they plan to keep young riders safe including live trip tracking, sensors and GPS data and only allowing experienced drivers to accept trip requests from teen accounts.
“This product has been in the works for quite a long time. We’ve done our research with the parents, the families. We’ve also worked with external experts on safety,” Esteves said.
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Parents in Dayton shared their thoughts on this new feature.
Kristin Davis said she was “iffy” about the idea.
“I watch a lot of crime shows and I’m always iffy about my kids going anywhere without me, you never know, even if it’s family you never know. But as long as you get certain notifications I think that it should be alright, just as long as it’s local maybe,” Davis said.
“I wouldn’t allow it, I mean the way the world is now, no I wouldn’t do that,” another parent said.
But Surrie Murphy is confident the new option will give parents
“Just give it a try and see how it goes. If you’re actually a passenger, you know how comfortable you are doing the ride and you know if you’re comfortable with yourself in there, you know let your kids get a ride as well,” Murphy said.
When a teen turns 18 their account will be converted to a standard account.
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