Uber plans to add a panic button to its mobile app in Chicago that users can press to alert police if they feel threatened. 
 
 Uber’s Midwest Regional Manager Andrew Macdonald could not offer a specific time frame on when the feature would make its local debut while addressing the Sun-Times editorial board Thursday. He said it would happen in the “next several months.” 
 
 Uber General Manager Chris Taylor said it was unclear if Chicago would be the first U.S. city to test the safety device but noted that “as it is perfected, it will become something that is more broadly used.” 
 
 The panic button was first implemented in India earlier this month following rape allegations against an Uber driver. 
 
 Two Uber drivers in Chicago were charged in recent months with sexually assaulting a passenger. 
 
 The upcoming safety measure was alternately referred to as an SOS button or a panic button by Uber officials Thursday. 
 
 The measure would be in addition to a sort of secret shopper program that was rolled out in January in Chicago. It employs 10 off-duty Chicago Police officers to take Uber rides one day a month and report back on the experience. 
 
 Uber drivers, who provide about 2 million rides a month in Chicago, have been warned the program exists, which creates a deterrent effect, said Phillip Cardenas, Uber’s head of safety. But the off-duty officers do not feign conditions that leave riders most vulnerable: intoxicated very late at night, Taylor said. 
 
 First-time users in Illinois, since January, also get a safety lesson in how to use Uber in the form of a screen pop-up on the app. 
 
 Cardenas said rider feedback via the Uber app is also constantly monitored. Simply using the word “creepy” to describe an “Uber” driver would likely cause officials at the company to disable the driver’s account and investigate. 
 
 Cardenas noted that background checks that are conducted by Uber look seven years back into a potential driver’s criminal history — two years more than required by the city. He described Uber’s background check practice as a “gold standard” of the industry and equated it to the process used by one of the nation’s largest daycare providers. 
 
 Perhaps the greatest safeguard, though, is the fact that both rider and driver provide large amounts of personal information to Uber, and both are being tracked by GPS during the course of a ride. 
 
 “The reality of it is, if you have bad intent, an Uber trip is the worst place to commit a crime,” Macdonald said. “To put it crassly, you’re going to get caught.” 
 
 Editor’s note: This post was updated to correct the spelling of Andrew Macdonald’s name. ||||| After reinstating its presence in India, Uber introduces two new safety features to protect customers from drivers. 
 
 Uber's ride-hailing service has added two additional safety features for customers in India after once again coming under fire due to a sexual assault allegation against one of its drivers. 
 
 Following the charges, Uber and all other web-based taxi services were banned in several cities in India, including the capital, Delhi. Despite frequent claims that is a technology company, not a transportation service, Uber applied for a taxi license and is back in business. 
 
 The additional safety features add two levels of security that riders can choose to use. 
 
 One is the “send status” feature which allows drivers to send a message providing the driver’s photo, vehicle details, and GPS tracking location to up to five pre-selected emergency contacts. Recipients will then be able to track the location of the car without incurring any additional SMS charges. This is essentially an extension of the “send my ETA (estimated time of arrival)” feature that was added last year. 
 
 The second safety precaution is the SOS button. The SOS button appears in the top right of the screen, and if pushed twice – the app asks for a confirmation that you indeed meant to push it– will automatically dial the local authorities. 
 
 While these new functions may prove helpful, the larger issue may be with the screening process for drivers in India. 
 
 While Uber has claimed that it goes above and beyond the local requirements for screening drivers, but deputy commissioner with the Delhi police Madhur Verma is not convinced. 
 
 "Every violation by Uber will be evaluated and we will go for legal recourse," Verma told Reuters, following the rape allegations in December. 
 
 The man accused of raping a passenger in India was a repeat offender and had previously done time in jail for rape. According to the screening standards that Uber employs in the United States, that charge should have ruled him out as a driver. 
 
 Uber's policy specifically states that drivers must not have been convicted of any sexual offenses in the past seven years. But Uber does not use the same standards in India. The record of the rapist’s past was there, but Uber didn’t look for it. 
 
 Currently the new safety features are only available in India. 
 
 Last month, Uber added a safe ride checklist for Boston and Chicago customers after sexual assault complaints from customers in both cities. The feature has yet to be extended to other cities or countries. 
 
 It is unclear whether the safety features added in India, or those in Boston and Chicago, will become available in a larger pool of customers. 
 
 The blog post in which Uber announced the additions to its India service said “We are proud to pilot these features across all cities in India, and we will roll out additional safety features in other cities and countries in the coming months – stay tuned for updates.”
– Uber is adding a safety feature for customers in Chicago—they'll be able to press a "panic button" as part of the Uber app if they feel threatened by a driver, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Of course, the very fact that Uber feels compelled to roll out an SOS button isn't such great news, but the company is trying to ease concerns after two drivers in the city were accused of sexually assaulting passengers in recent months. The button is expected to be in place within the year, and it follows the rollout of a similar button, for similar reasons, in India earlier this month. The idea is to allow passengers to alert police quickly if they're endangered, and it appears that Chicago will be the first US city to have such a feature in place. The company already provides a "safe ride checklist" for passengers in Chicago and Boston, notes the Christian Science Monitor. The safety features can help, but the Monitor notes that the real issue is making sure that drivers are adequately screened. (Uber may soon start using "robo-cabs.")