#WhatsMyName movement is deadly reminder of Uber, Lyft safety shortcomings

“What’s my name?”

That’s the question the family of Samantha Josephson is making sure everyone asks after getting into a ride-share car. 

Josephson, 21, was killed last month after getting into what she thought was the Uber she had ordered in downtown Columbia, South Carolina, where she went to college. Her accused killer impersonated an Uber driver. 

Now the #WhatsMyName hashtag is spreading — with the help of her family — to make sure more riders safely get home. A website, a growing social presence, and media appearances are all efforts to educate passengers on how to find the correct Uber or Lyft after ordering a car through an app. 

The movement, which is separate from safety campaigns from ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft, wants to get riders in the habit of double-checking that their driver is really their driver. The movement believes something as simple as asking, “What’s my name?” can ensure you’re in a verified Uber car, with a driver who’s background-checked and licensed. If the name the driver has on their app isn’t yours, something’s wrong.

It’s not all on the riders. The movement led by Josephson’s family focuses on rider education, but that doesn’t mean that the onus should be only on riders — and especially female riders. Ride-sharing safety education, other prevention methods, and ride-hailing app confirmation tools should be brought in from the companies connecting the rides rather than making women like Josephson bear the responsibility of avoiding assault and violence.

Ride-share companies are re-examining the driver-passenger matching process. Already Uber and Lyft emphasize license-plate matching as a base-level safety precaution, but other tools like Uber’s glowing Beacon and Lyft’s Amp are supposed to help match drivers and riders. 

Beacon displays sit in the front of Uber windshields and pulsate a color chosen and controlled by the passenger in the app. When your Uber ride pulls up, the color should match. Lyft’s Amp beacons on the driver dash also flash matching colors and show the passenger name — so again, if it’s not your name, it’s not your ride. Lyft says hundreds of thousands of drivers across the U.S. use the Amp devices.

Uber’s safety page says, “Check your ride, every time.” And starting Thursday, more awareness about checking your ride will be pushed out to riders across the U.S. Every Uber user will receive an email with a set of steps to complete before getting into an Uber. The campaign will go out across social media, ads in college newspapers, and on billboards. 

In the app, a push notification will remind riders about checking ride details — just before a car arrives. The alert will first go out in Columbia, South Carolina, and then nationwide in the following days. Also in the app a banner will remind you to confirm you’re matched with the right car. The reminder will stay up for several weeks.

Uber’s also giving a $100,000 grant to the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators to spread the message about checking for ride confirmation.

Lawmakers in South Carolina, where Josephson was killed, introduced a bill pushing for a new ride-sharing requirement. Cars would have to have lights and signs that match to passenger apps. North Carolina has similar legislation. A Lyft spokesperson said in a statement that the company was willing to work with lawmakers on adding more signage to cars.

“We want to work with lawmakers to develop common sense rules to keep our community safe. The best way for riders to identify their Lyft is to match the license plate number shown in the app with the license plate of the vehicle they’re about to get into … A measure that can add another layer of safety is illuminated signage for every rideshare vehicle,” the statement read.

As is, not every Uber or Lyft car has these colorful, more obvious driver-passenger matching tools. Other ride-sharing companies offer their own verification tools and systems to make sure everyone gets matched up properly. 

A Change.org petition with more than 230,000 signatures is calling for QR codes for passengers to scan through the ride-hailing apps before they get into a car. This is something carpooling ride app Via has been testing, as seen with Viavan with Mercedes-Benz vans. A QR scanner for passengers to use as a “boarding pass” from their smartphone is supposed to launch in a few weeks.

Another matching technology in the works is using augmented reality with a Via icon “floating” above the correct car you’ve been matched with. If the arrow or icon doesn’t appear, it means your car isn’t there yet.

Didi Chuxing — a major ride-sharing company in China — shares the driver’s profile picture, vehicle information, and license plates on the app, and sends an in-app message to remind the rider to check that all information matches.

Didi says it connects riders to online customer service, a phone or email hotline to report a mismatch between the driver and their car — if the driver is not in the car listed in the profile, Didi says it will suspend the driver. 

Riders in India taking Ola cars have had to match codes generated in the app for the passenger and driver to make sure they’ve been properly paired. 

Uber has quickly beefed up its rider safety reminders and messaging after Josephson’s death. But until more of these verification systems become commonplace across ride-sharing platforms, riders still carry the burden to stay safe while ride-sharing.