Uber hires Amazon VP to run customer service, details RAINN partnership & plans to improve background checks

Uber today released a significant update to its safety roadmap. In it, the company detailed its plans to explore ways of improving international background checks with biometrics, voice verification, and lie detectors. Additionally, the company announced a partnership with anti-sexual assault organization RAINN “to train various members of our safety and support teams.”

Alongside these updates, the company revealed that it has hired Amazon operations vice president Tim Collins to improve its customer support and build “Safety Incident Response teams around the world.” Collins “spent 15 years at Amazon leading operations and customer support teams” and “led Amazon’s Europe Operations with over 18,000 employees,” Uber said in a statement.

This is Uber’s first major safety update since it was banned in India’s capital over a rape allegation. Safety and privacy have emerged as key concerns among Uber users and critics, and criticism has only heightened since the company’s valuation ballooned to $40 million.

“Of course, no background check can predict future behavior and no technology can yet fully prevent bad actions,” said Uber. “But our responsibility is to leverage every smart tool at our disposal to set the highest standard in safety we can. We will not shy away from this task.”