Pune: The app aggregator cab service provider Ola has launched a real-time monitoring system project ‘Guardian’ to strengthen safety ride of its customers on the platform. The project has been launched as a pilot basis in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Pune. Guardian will go live in Delhi and Kolkata by the end of next month and will be rolled out in other cities by the end of the year.
According to Ola officials, “As part of Guardian project, all ongoing trips will be tracked by analysing ride indicators that include route deviations, unexpected and midway stops, amongst others. Based on the indicators and time of travel, safety triggers will be created which will be attended to immediately by Ola’s Safety Response Team (SRT). After analysing the data, the Safety Response Team will connect with the customer to assess any potential unsafe ride and provide assistance as required.”
Ankur Agrawal, VP-Business Excellence & Safety at Ola, said, “The Guardian project is a major step in this direction, which accelerates Ola’s past efforts in holistically making roads and rides safer and build confidence amongst customers and driver-partners to feel safe on the platform round-the-clock.”
In addition to that, Ola is working with government authorities to map dark spots and unsafe routes into the monitoring platform to enhance the monitoring system’s performance. This capability will further enable Ola’s SRT to determine vulnerabilities and augment safety protocols.
As a part of Street Safe, Ola is also working towards mitigating driver impersonation on the platform. Drawing on the success of its pilot programme, Ola announced the rollout of its tech-powered selfie authentication initiative across the country.
Through this initiative, driver partners are required to validate their identity by taking a selfie and sharing it with the Ola team immediately through the app. This photograph of the driver will then be compared to the image on record. Impersonators will have their platform access revoked and will be subject to investigation.
He further added, “Ola will continue to innovate and use AI and machine learning algorithms to further enhance the Guardian project as the project is rolled out nationally. We are certain that these moves will have a measurable impact in galvanising India’s mobility ecosystem and providing our customers with an enhanced ride-sharing experience.”
