Uber adds more safety features for riders

The trusted contacts feature lets riders add up to five people who can get their trip details and track every ride. Soon after that, the now-current CEO of the ride-sharing firm found that his company had hidden evidence of an separate extortion-based attack that exposed "25 million names and email addresses, 22 million names and mobile phone numbers, and 600,000 names and driver's license numbers of US Uber drivers and riders", according to the FTC.

"Helping keep people safe is a huge responsibility, and one we do not take lightly", Khosrowshahi said in a statement. Some said they have had bad experiences in the past.

Uber is looking to be virtually a one-stop transportation shopping app, saying on Wednesday it will add new services, including car-sharing and train tickets.

Prices will remain the same as they are on Getaround, which operates in 15 cities and starts at $5 an hour depending on the type of vehicle you're getting. This new feature will also be available for the passengers to ensure more safety while taking an Uber ride.

Evelyn Bailey, executive director of the National Association of State 911 Administrators, said Uber's two-step calling through the app may not be intuitive for people, and she would prefer they call 911 with the keypad. "I do feel like it's going to help just knowing the fact that it's there just in case you feel really unsafe and you can just know that you can do something to make yourself feel safer".

In the "Safety Center", users can find tips from law enforcement, learn things like how Uber screens drivers, and insurance protections.

The FTC said Uber in November 2016 learned that intruders had again accessed consumer data the company stored on its third-party cloud provider's servers but did not disclose the incident for a year.

The ride-hailing company also said it's improving how it screens drivers; it'll conduct annual background checks and receive automatic notifications when a driver commits a criminal offense, like drunken driving. The App will be customizable so that users can only share those details when they are riding at night, for instance. Another partnership with National Emergency Number Association - though that one's a bit more of a long term payoff, created to help improve emergency call routing.

Khosrowshahi recently visited Asia and announced many changes to the Uber app under his initiative focused on "ways Uber can better serve riders, drivers and cities".