While many of ride-hailing giant Uber’s (UBER) recent achievements tend to revolve around better customer service, there has not been much in the way of improvements for the drivers. That is about to change with some new features geared toward driver safety, and it is helping the stock as well. Uber stock was up over 1.5% in Tuesday afternoon trading.
The first new feature is a verification system for riders. Riders will be able to go through a set of new verification steps to give them a “verified” rider badge that will be visible during a trip request. That, in turn, means there is a paper trail on file with Uber, such that if something does go wrong, there will be a path to trace it back to that person. In fact, Uber has already deleted about 15,000 rider accounts found to have fake names.
With a shocking disparity among sexual assault victims in Uber—a safety report from 2021-2022 found that 31% of incidents were drivers against riders, but more than twice that, or 68%, were incidents of riders assaulting drivers—such a move should contribute toward addressing the problem. The second new feature, a means to use a smartphone to record a ride instead of a dashcam, should also prove more helpful in protecting drivers.
The Insurance Company Calleth
While this is certainly helpful for the drivers, Uber has another potential problem in the wings: insurance. This issue is particularly relevant in New York City where Uber drivers and taxis alike are facing the fallout from the insolvency and collapse of American Transit, the largest such insurance operator in the city.
A New York Times report noted that American Transit covered about 74,000 hired vehicles—taxis and Ubers among them—and the loss of American Transit could either see those vehicles rendered out of service or forced to pay new, higher costs to replace the lost insurance.
What Is the Stock Price Prediction for Uber in 2025?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on UBER stock based on 31 Buys and one Hold assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a ~57% rally in its share price over the past year, the average UBER price target of $87.93 per share implies ~21% upside potential.
