By Julian Mendoza and Becky Wandel

On March 29, University of South Carolina student Samantha Josephson, 21, was killed by a man she mistook for her Uber driver, throwing the transportation service company into the spotlight. The murder brings into question the effectiveness of Uber’s safety policies.

“Since 2017, we’ve been working with local law enforcement and college campuses across the country to educate the public about how to avoid fake rideshare drivers,” a representative from Uber said in an email to The State in response to the incident. “Everyone at Uber is devastated to hear about this unspeakable crime, and our hearts are with Samantha Josephson’s family and loved ones. We remain focused on raising public awareness about this incredibly important issue.”

But some believe that the efforts put forth by companies like Uber and Lyft to ensure passenger safety haven’t been as strong as they need to be.

“I’ve never seen Uber say anything about, like, ‘you need to do this before you get in the car,’” said Emma Sammuli, a student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and frequent Uber user.

Even some drivers say that Uber takes overly-simplified and infrequent action in verifying the validity of their drivers.

“There will be a couple times where you’ll go to open up the app and it’ll be like, ‘oh, we need a picture of your face to verify it’s you,’ but that’s only happened to me like once,” said driver Aidan Stanowicz. Beyond those infrequent checks he said that the app sometimes updates its policies and as long as he hits “agree” when notified, he’s good to drive.

While it is widely accepted that the primary way to stay safe using Uber is to be vigilant and cautious as a passenger, some believe that Uber is also responsible for improving their platform to be more inherently safe.

“This is their company. So they have to take the right steps and the right measures to try and ensure that the passenger safety is paramount,” Amherst Police Captain Gabriel Ting said. Along with passengers, Ting expressed a confidence that the technology required to enhance safety already exists, it’s just up to Uber to implement it. Since Uber’s launch in 2009, the company and its competitors have had a decade to adapt to a changing safety climate. In recent years, Uber has publically invested millions towards developing flying cars for use in the near future, so innovating their app to prioritize safety shouldn’t be a challenge.