For iPhone Users:

Go into the settings on your phone and look for Emergency -
S.O.S. Scroll down till you find something about Health and Contacts. Be sure
you have this set up. The health card you will have to set up is important in
any sort of situation where you might find yourself unconscious and unable to
speak. EMT are taught how to open this section of your phone if they are not
able to ask you a few important questions.

The other part of this feature allows you to set up alerts to
be sent to the people that you select from your contact list if anything was to
go wrong. This feature is quickly and discreetly activated with just a few
quick presses of your phone's power button.

For Samsung Users:

Go into your setting and find the section titled Safety and
Emergency. Select Emergency SOS and follow the instructions there. You will
also be able to set up a health card here.

In your Uber App, in your settings, you are looking for the term “Verify my ride”.
When you find it and open that section, you need to go ahead and turn that on.
What this does is that it generates a 4-digit PIN to give to your driver every
time that you use Uber. But it is not enough to merely have this turned on and so I am going to give you a pro tip on how to make this work most effectively.

DO NOT GET IN THE VEHICLE!!!

Instead, after verifying the license plate you will approach the passenger and get the driver to roll down the window. Through the window you will give the driver your 4-digit PIN code. Once they have typed that in you will then proceed to
play stupid for a moment by telling the driver that you might not have put the
address in correctly and that you would like them to tell you what address they
have on their screen.

See, we drivers cannot see your destination address until we have started the ride. You want to know that the ride has begun before you get in a vehicle. I have heard one woman tell me that her actual driver cancelled on her as she was entering his vehicle. It is a good thing that this woman was paying attention and caught this dastardly act. Cancelling a ride as or after the passenger has entered the vehicle takes away all of Uber’s safety features and goes into their system as you did not show for pick up. There would be no record of you getting into that driver’s vehicle. Verify your driver and make them start the ride BEFORE you get in their car.

This step is going to take a little research for you to become better prepared to safely get into an Uber ride. You’re going to want to Google images of vehicle child safety locks and study the various designs these locks have. You want to be able to quickly recognize if they are set to the locked
position. Before entering a vehicle be certain to look at these locks. They are
located on both rear doors on the panel between the inner and outer surface of
the door and cannot be seen when the door is closed. Regardless of how offensive it might appear to your driver, if it is dark out, use your flashlight to check the child safety locks before you get in.

Many drivers, including myself, will not prefer for you to sit directly behind them.
But this is the safest place for you to sit because the driver will have a very difficult time reaching you for any reason. With the assurance that the child safety lock is set to the unlocked position you will know that you will easily
be able to escape without the driver being able to grab you and pull you back
in. And, if necessary (I hope it never comes to that), run to the rear of the car and around the back rather than straight away from the car. They will also be exiting on that side. You would want to option of playing Ring Around the Rosie rather than be the girl who falls and gets caught in the horror film.

Predatory Drivers know when they have wronged their passenger, especially when they have been confronted for their behavior. As a defensive tactic they will often give false reports on their passenger preempreemptively trying to turn their wrong into a "He said/She said" scenario. Sadly, this tactic is quite effective. At this point, Uber HQ cannot tell who is actually in the wrong (unless you use the option to record audio found in your Uber App by pressing the shield button on your screen). When this happens Uber is left with only one option. But while Uber will never pair you with that driver ever again, that driver would be free to treat others the way that they treated you.

Instead of confronting your driver, just sit silent and record the conversation in the app. Be ready to call for help. One of the other tips here will tell you another way to handle a situation such as this. Continue reading to see all of your options.

If ever a driver makes you feel uncomfortable and you want them to stop talking to
you, have a friend on standby waiting to receive any text from you. You’re sitting behind the driver so they cannot see what you’re doing on your phone. When you send them the text, they are to call you [this prevents the driver from continuing to try and talk to you. Hardly any driver will ever try to
interrupt your phone call]. Your conversation should sound like you are on your
way to meet them whether it is true or not [this tells the driver that you are
expected]. As the two of you talk, the other person should be asking you where you’re at and how long it’s going to take for you to get there [this lets the driver know that someone knows where you currently are].

If there ever comes a time when you feel that you might not be safe with your driver, for any reason.

DO NOT ASK THE DRIVER TO LET YOU OUT!!!

Instead, go into your app and look for your destination for the trip that you are currently taking. Out to the side (in blue lettering) it should say "Add or Change". Click on that and it will take you to a place where you can quietly change your drop-off location.

The idea is to be let out of the vehicle on your own terms without provoking any sort of a situation with the driver. This prevents you from being dropped off on the side of a highway or in a neighborhood where you do not feel safe. Some of the best places to change your address will be hotels, hospitals, and gas stations that you know are open 24/7.

It is advised not to accept a drivers personal contact information for the purpose of securing a cheaper ride from them personally. Sure, while there are many drivers out there who are harmless and are only looking to receive better pay for their time, there are also those who might have other interests in mind. Yet there is no real way to be able to tell which driver you might meet. So, to avoid even the possibility of that situation going wrong, stick to keeping your experience with Uber drivers within the Uber platform. That way, you may always benefit from Ubers safety tools, such as having a friend track your ride, having the ability to report your drivers behavior, and basically having control. Once you get into a person's vehicle when you are NOT an Uber passenger, your safety is on you. And while they may have been an Uber Driver when you met them, they are not an Uber Driver if they are not logged in and accepting rides through the app.

There have been instances where certain drivers are being seletive of what rides they accept based upon the passengers gender. Using a male name on your profile is not such a bad idea as a means of avoiding drivers who might be selective. If your name is listed as a male name, naturally, you will avoid these drivers as they will decline your ride because they won't see a female name.