New Uber safety feature coming to SWFL

A new feature is coming to the Uber app to keep everyone safer.

Earlier this year, along Bonita Beach Road, Hunter Cook, a passenger, choked and beat his Uber driver after refusing to leave the driver’s car.

After yelling, screaming and beating the victim, Cook drove off in the victim’s car.

Without a 911 call, Tania Blazquez believes she would have no audio proof of what happened to her after midnight, on June 25.

Blazquez called for help after Cook refused to get out of her car when they arrived at his destination along Bonita Beach.

“He started hitting me and threw me outside, and I fell on the floor, and he got out and kept hitting and kicking me,” Blazquez said.

Now, Uber is now offering an in-app safety feature that gives both drivers and passengers the option to start an audio recording of the trip.

While Blazquez doesn’t think the feature would have helped her or stopped her attacker, Andrew Hasbun with Uber disagrees.

“They’ll know before they start the trip that audio is being recorded. The driver will know and the rider will know,” said Andrew Hasbun, Uber spokesperson.

Hasbun said that once a driver or rider selects a safety feature in the Uber app, the other party will get a notification.

“And so, just like, you know, you see, you’re going to a bank and there’s security cameras signs,” Habun said, “this will serve as almost like a warning or a notice that recording is possible. Possible. And our hope is that you know when that’s there, we will be promoting safe and comfortable interactions among the people in the vehicle.”

The safety feature has been available through the safety toolkit in the Uber app since Wednesday. Fort Myers is one of 150 cities in which recording is possible.

As for Cook, the accused Uber carjacker, he is free on bond.

Blazquez said it has been challenging for her since the attack, especially emotionally.

She said she is now in therapy.