Ola Brings AI-Powered Guardian Feature To Make Your Rides Safer

Ola, the popular cab-hailing service, has launched a new feature called Guardian. The company says that the Artificial Intelligence-based Guardian is a safety feature and is now available in several cities in India. There was an initial trial run of the Guardian feature and now, it'll be available in Perth, Australia and 16 Indian cities.

Ola Guardian Features

The Guardian feature uses real-time data from the rides. In case any irregularity is spotted on the trip, the AI feature will issue an alert. Irregularity in the trip could mean prolonged stops, change in route unexpectedly, route deviations, and more. Ola says the feature is to enhance the rider's safety above everything else.

"We are focused on developing innovations that place customer safety at the heart of platform experience," Arun Srinivas, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Ola, said in a statement. The Guardian feature claims to bring the precision of artificial intelligence and machine learning with an assurance of human intervention when needed.

Ola Introduces Safety Response Team

The feature aims to enable a "uniform and safe mobility experience across the markets we operate in," Srinivas said. Ola has scheduled a 24 X 7 Safety Response Team in link with the Guardian feature. Suppose there's an alert or an irregularity has been spotted on a rider, the response team gets the message in real-time.

In response, the team will reach out to the customers and drivers to confirm if they're safe or not. Plus, on-the-call assistance will be provided until the ride completes. Ola says the machine learning capabilities enable the Guardian feature to learn and evolve from the accumulating data points every day. Ola believes that the risk signaling and instant resolution of the feature will improve with ML.

Interestingly, Ola rolled out the Guardian feature as a pilot project in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Pune back in 2018. The company says that the feature will arrive in more cities in the first quarter of 2020.