Uber announced an exciting new product on its newsroom on Thursday, June 09, 2016. The company called it “Scheduled rides”, and it comes to make users’ lives much simpler, and it is first available in Seattle. The idea is very simple. Now Uber users can program their days including the cab.

If a person wants to schedule a taxi for let’s say tomorrow morning at 6 A.M., he just has to select uberX and tap on “Schedule a ride.” Once there, he has to input date, time, location and destination. If for whatever reason plans changed, there is no problem.

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Users can cancel a scheduled ride anytime before the driver is on his way. However, they did not say what happens if someone tries to withdraw when the cab is on its way. What they did say was that the company is going to send two reminders, one 24 hours and 30 minutes before the pickup date.

“Since Uber’s magic of “push a button and get a ride” launched 6 years ago, people have valued the ability to access rides on-demand through our app. But we’ve also heard from our riders that sometimes they want to arrange a pickup in advance so they can rest assured that an Uber will be available when they need it, even if it’s for a 4AM ride to the airport.” Reported Russel Dicker at the company’s official news site.

So far, the option has been a success among the company’s corporate clients. In fact, the company gave priority access to owners of an Uber Business account with notable clients praising the company’s new tool including Microsoft and the Zillow Group.

An app that can save lives

But such a useful tool could impact the United States population in a greater and more significant way where most traffic accidents are associated to DUI (Drinking Under Influence). Only in 2014, almost 10 thousand people died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes which make 31% of total deaths on American roads. The statistics come from the hand of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that says in the same year, 1.1 million drivers were arrested for driving while drunk. This kind of cases increases at night time when public transportation is less available.

According to the studies, people drink and drive for many reasons, but the most common one is plain bad judgment. But don’t be so quick at pointing with the finger, the CDC reports that after only a couple of beers, a person’s ability to make decisions is affected which renders them susceptible to make a move. Taking that into account, it might seem reasonable why a person drives home after having a couple of drinks instead of waiting for god knows how long for a cab if there is any available.

With Uber’s new feature, there is no excuse. Anyone can make the informed and logical decision of scheduling a taxi for a particular time at night, and everybody can enjoy the party because there is no necessity of a designated driver.

Source: Uber