One of Uber's greatest strengths is convenience: it allows users to use the app-based car service in most areas regardless of time or place, something that comes in handy when you're lost and only have your smartphone with you.
Now it looks like Uber is stepping up on the convenience factor in a big way with a new feature called "Family Profiles," allowing up to 10 family members to share one account and pay for rides with a Family Profile rather than their own credit card.
"It's a great way to help loved ones, friends or coworkers get where they want to go while you foot the bill," said Uber in today's announcement about the new feature.
Contrary to its name, Family Profiles, it doesn't apply to family members alone. As the announcement states, friends, co-workers and almost anyone can be added to a group on the app. All that's required is the latest version of the Uber application, then navigate to Settings from the Menu, and scroll down to the new "Add a Family Profile" option. Once the contacts you choose accept the request in their own Uber app, then they're good to go.
The only caveat with this far-reaching deal is that only the organizer whose payment card is on file and associated with the profile, will receive the ride receipts. This means that you'll likely only want those who you can trust to be in the group - potentially omitting quite a few people in your contact list.
Regardless, this feature has a plethora of benefits that outweigh the negatives. For example, families with children in college may no longer have to worry about driving to their location to pick them up. Now they can rely on an Uber driver to take them back instead. Similarly, parents who are unable to pick their child up from school can use the feature to have an Uber driver ferry him or her back home instead (of course that begs the question of whether a parent would be willing to leave their child alone with one in the first place).
This feature mirrors the Business Profile setting that Uber introduced last year, which makes it easier for members of company to charge rides to corporate credit cards, add expense memos and project codes, and get receipts sent to work email accounts.
As for this one, Family Profiles is only available in Atlanta, Dallas and Phoenix for the time being. There is no ETA for when the feature will roll out to other Uber markets, but the expectation is that it will expand once intial tests are complete.
