Source: Smith Collection/Gado / Getty
If you’re an Uber driver, you’re going to have to take a small break in between driving.
The ride share platform has added a new feature that forces a driver to be offline for six hours whenever a driver reaches 12 hours of driving time.
“There’s definitely a lot of third party expertise that’s gone into our thinking,” said Uber Head of Safety product Sachin Kansal. “but it’s also that we know how our drivers drive, we know road conditions, so we have baked all that into it as well.”
Uber has studied the feature where implemented in other markets (including Australia, where it launched previously) and built this U.S.-facing version with a lot of feedback in mind. That’s why the app will provide notifications when you’re nearing that 12 hour limit, effectively counting down so that it’s fully transparent and not surprising to a driver when they max out. When the six-hour break is over, the app will once again unlock itself for bookings. Also, where different rules are required by local law, those will apply instead of this new cross-U.S. limit.
Rival Lyft has a driver limit in place, too, which mandates a six-hour break for every 14 hours spent in driver mode, but it’s not as granular as Uber’s. Uber says it also plans to evaluate continued international rollout on an ongoing basis, and to expect this change to be introduced gradually across the driver app in the U.S. one the next few weeks.
