When third-year operations and supply chain and entrepreneurship student Zack Coetzee started investigating rideshare safety, he found an alarming fact. Over the course of five years, sexual assault cases in Ubers happened every eight minutes.
From 2017 to 2022, a total of 400,181 Uber trips resulted in a report of sexual misconduct or assault, The New York Times reported. Since 2022, Uber has not released the number of reports it has received.
Coetzee started learning more about rideshare safety after his girlfriend once ordered both of them a rideshare through an all-girl GroupMe. He and his girlfriend were picked up by a male graduate student, who had access to the GroupMe, which got him thinking about verification and regulation among rideshare services.
After researching, Coetzee wanted to create something that ensures the safety of both USC male and female students when using a rideshare service. Coetzee launched SafeRides Driver and SafeRides Rider, two rideshare apps with extensive safety features for USC students.
Safety features such as a verification process, a pickup code and options to select certain drivers have all been added to ensure the safety of male and female students when using a rideshare service.
One of the apps' safety features is that users must submit proof of being a USC student to become a driver or rider. This ensures that only USC students are signed up for either app — an intended safety feature Coetzee wanted.
“Our motto is ‘For the students by the students’ because we are only taking student drivers and only taking student riders, and they have to be through the University of South Carolina,” Coetzee said. “You have to submit your Carolina ID, your driver's license, your insurance, and then I verify your email.”
Users must also submit their insurance as a backup in case something happens, Coetzee said.
Third-year advertising student Adam McKinley and friend to Coetzee said the verification process adds a form of regulation, something he said doesn’t always happen with other group chats.
“That kind of takes it from being a group chat, unregulated, anybody’s able to join this, to an actual platform for students, made for the students and not just anyone around the block,” McKinley said.
Along with the verification process, a four-digit pickup code was also added to the SafeRides Rider app, and the ride can’t start unless both the driver's and rider's pickup codes align, Coetzee said.
Jenna Zangrilli, executive director of the What's My Name Foundation, said students have started to become more aware of rideshare dangers and safety solutions.
The What's My Name Foundation was started by Seymour and Marci Josephson after their daughter, Samantha Josephson, a USC student, was kidnapped and killed when she got into a vehicle she believed was her Uber rideshare in March 2019.
“I think from 2019 to now, the big thing that shifted is the conversation around rideshare safety and the knowledge around the fact that people are more aware that it can be unsafe because others are starting to tell their scary stories,” Zangrilli said.
A feature where females, for example, can request to just have female drivers, and the drivers can also request a specific gender to pick up was also added. Riders can also request drivers who are either male or female.
“Males can only pick up males, but if a girl says that she is fine with requesting both genders, which the option clearly states that, 'This is what it is,'” Coetzee said. “Then a guy driver can pick up a girl, but that's completely up to their ... discretion.”
While the apps launched about a month ago, third-year exercise science student Peter Colleran said he hopes they will become more mainstream across campus next semester.
“I know a lot of people would just hear ‘Oh, it’s another Uber,’” Colleran said. “It’s kind of just for the students, so they can have a safe ride anywhere, so you have a consistent ride, someone that you might know too.”
With hopes of the app becoming more popular next semester, Coetzee said he wants to create an impact for the USC community.
“I feel like I’m doing something that actually matters and could save someone’s life or save someone from a sexual assault case or just be something for the safety of that person,” Coetzee said.