Uber wants to be a family-friendly service, and it's started out by launching Family Profiles, a feature that allows groups of up to 10 people sign onto the same account and pay for rides with a one payment method. It’s now available in Atlanta, Dallas, and Phoenix, with other markets being added in the future.
Anyone can create a family profile, however, to be added to one, you’ll need to receive accept an email invitation from the organizer. Then, anyone associated with that profile can open up their Uber app, select the “Family Profile” option as the default payment method, and summon a ride. Afterwards, the organizer will receive a receipt.
Over the past few months, the company has unveiled new profiles geared to different users, all with the desire to cater to how they may best use the on-demand ride service. Besides going after groups and families, Uber also has a business profile that makes it easier for riders to expense their trips.
However, now by apparent “popular demand,” the next step is with families, although that’s not the only use case — it can be used by a group of friends or coworkers. It’s limited to 10 people per profile, though, in order to limit fraud and abuse.
Atlanta, Dallas, and Phoenix are the first markets Uber serves to provide this feature. “We've heard from our local teams that there is demand for this type of feature in those cities,” said Marie Hagman, senior product manager. “In a city like Dallas, for example, there is a high college student population. Both parents and college-age children alike could benefit from an easy way to request rides from their own phone that are then billed to one shared payment account.”
The initial expectation for Uber is that this will allow more people to use the service. If a student that lives at home with their parents can’t get to class because they don’t have a car and doesn’t have steady income to pay for a cab or even an Uber, the family profile could alleviate that pain point. Parents won’t need to have their ride requests tied up with delivering their children to soccer practice, school, or work — it can be done in a separate app, however, the parents will know exactly where they went and how much it cost.
Hagman explained that currently, family profiles is launching in the United States, however, the company is looking to bring this internationally while also recognizing that people don’t have credit cards at the same rate as those here: “As we roll this feature out more broadly, we believe it can help families help each other and will be a great product to securely share a payment method and retain control.”
Only those riders in Atlanta, Dallas, and Phoenix will be able to add people to their family profile immediately. However, you don’t have to live in those cities to join one — it’s open to any Uber city except for those in China.
To check out family profiles, update the Uber app.
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