Reimagining the Transportation Industry for the Next Normal : Taxi App Market Post COVID-19

Leaps Taken By Key Taxi App Market Players in The Face of Crisis

Didi Chuxing

• Built disinfection stations by installing a plastic shield between the front and rare seats of the car in China to isolate passengers from the driver.
• Invested about USD 14.3 million in this safety measure that involves installing protective plastic sheets.

Uber

• Announced a series of new safety features and key policies across their product offerings like photo-based verification of drivers every time they log in. The new camera feature in the Uber taxi app for Driver does not allow the photo to be clicked unless the camera detects the mask.
• The other remarkable feature enables the rider or the driver to cancel the ride if either of them is not wearing the mask.
• Uber has suspended its ride-pooling app UberPool to extend physical distancing.
• Drivers will have to sanitize their cars after each ride and Uber will provide them free health and safety supplies.
• Developed a new ‘Work Hub’ app to help drivers find substitute jobs.

Grab

• Temporarily suspended GrabShare and GrabBike to encourage safe, social-distancing practices.
• The touchless online payment option in the taxi app solution is helping customers to go cashless with GrabPay.
• Introduced a ride cover policy with ‘Chubb’ to include coverage for Covid-19.
• Subsidized masks for drivers on GrabBenefits.
• Financial Assistance to affected drivers while their account is on hold.

Lyft

These were the steps taken by leading taxi-hailing companies to address COVID-19.

• Distributed cleaning supplies like hand sanitizer and face masks to drivers for free.
• Activated more than 500 partners through LyftUp to expand transportation access and avail free rides to those in urgent need.
• Disinfects high contact surfaces at depots periodically.

Ola

• Made mask compulsory and sanitization before and after ride for customers boarding the cab.
• Limited only two passengers per ride.
• Encouraged to make cashless payments to avoid contacts.
• Gave 500 vehicles to the government for Doctors’ commutation and COVID-19 related activities.

Reinvent Through Smart Mobility Trends in Transportation

• End To End Digitalization Through Taxi App Development Solution The lineup of touchless features in a taxi app solution ranging from photo-based (with mask) profile verification of drivers to contactless payments and SOS buttons to inform if they have come in interaction with COVID rider or driver, etc. are helping in improving the responsiveness and speed to market.
• Mobility As A Service (MaaS)Mobility As A Service (MaaS) and Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) may leverage the benefits and functionally integrate the features provided by smart connected communities that facilitates extensive real-time data sharing and P2P communications, and contextual decision making through innovative technologies.
• Increased Usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning in Transportation Apps The impact of Covid-19 has triggered a rise in AI applications for addressing the changing customer needs and preferences on the face of safety and hygiene. Here are the areas where AI will be used to battle pandemic effects.

• 1. Corporate decision making, planning, and management
  2. Prediction and traffic/incidents detection models
  3. Connected and autonomous vehicles
  4. Temperature sensors for regulating the use of public transport
  5. Optimization of operational efficiency during social distancing

Each of these areas will help in mitigating increased exposure to risk for minimizing human contact, optimizing operational efficiency during physical distancing by predicting the demand and supply of service. It can also be used to check the human temperatures before they step in to the use of public transport.

Source: Govtech