Uber has introduced a new feature that the company claims will help its customers identify their rides more easily. It is called the Beacon.
Meet Uber Beacon: A New Color-Coded Gadget That Helps You Find Your Ride
We’re excited to unveil Uber Beacon, a device that goes on a driver’s windshield and uses color-pairing technology to help drivers and riders more quickly connect at night, particularly at crowded venues.
Uber's Beacon is a gadget for users to identify cars easily without having to go through the whole process of matching the license plate number. Its release is officially announced in a Uber Newsroom with the title "Lighting the Way Toward Seamless Pickups with Uber Beacon." It was released Thursday, December 15, and claimed that starting tomorrow, they will be rolling out Uber Beacon in selected cities including Miami, Denver, Nashville and Newcastle (U.K.).
According to The Verge, Beacon is essentially a glowing, plastic Uber logo that drivers can affix to the inside of their windshields. It’s Bluetooth-enabled, so after a driver accepts your ride request, a prompt will appear in your app that asks you to choose a specific color. For example, if you choose red, the driver’s Beacon will glow red. Whatever color you pick, when the driver arrives at your destination, you’ll know it, no need to look at the plate number anymore.
"We’re continuing to explore more in-app improvements for the pickup experience, software is only a piece of the puzzle, said Nikhil Goel, product lead on the Beacon project, and John Badalamenti, product advisor/ senior lead designer of Uber. "That’s why today, we’re excited to unveil Uber Beacon," they added.
The Product Pilot Launch
Last year in Seattle, Uber already pioneered this concept through the SPOT pilot. They found that it reducing the need of riders and drivers to contact one another and lowered cancellation rates in tricky pickup locations. Based on this feedback, Uber team has been exploring additional ways to use the color-pairing technology in hardware to improve both the rider and driver experience.
TNW reported that all Uber drivers will be invited to secret meetings where they’ll be provided with one of the devices, as well as charging equipment, free of charge. The devices will be gradually rolled out through 2017, and one Uber rep told The Verge that by the end of the year, the devices will be ubiquitous.
