OkMe

Panic button for ride-share drivers

2 followers

Panic button for ride-share drivers

2 followers

OkMe is the panic button designed to help 1.5M rideshare drivers in America: in case of an emergency during a ride, the driver can push OkMe Bluetooth button (attached in the back of the steering wheel) and OkMe app will silently send emergency text/live GPS to pre-entered contact(s)

Launch tags:Ridesharing•Tech

Launch Team

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Password Chef

If I were a ride-share driver, I would seriously consider this. Is there anything to minimize accidental button pressing? I've got toddlers who would love to mash it. I'd be even more impressed if there was some mechanism you had to disengage first, like what you might find on a pepper spray bottle. Side note: I'm not crazy about the fear appeal on your site: "Driving strangers is dangerous and you know it." I don't actually know that, so it comes across as manipulative to me.

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7yr ago

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Maker

@timwinfree Thank you very much for your feedback! It's basically impossible to push the button by accident and in case you do, you have 10 seconds to push it again before trigging the emergency call! Regarding the website, I agree with what you say and I'm going to change it right now! Thank you! 😊👌

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7yr ago

Password Chef

@pompilio_fiore Okay good to know! And I see you've edited that wording. "Better Safe Than Sorry" is still a little heavy-handed. A few suggestions: "Protect Yourself from the Unexpected" "Prepare Yourself for the Unexpected" “Safety at Your Fingertips”

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7yr ago

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Maker

@timwinfree Thank you very much Tim! Very helpful, and I really appreciate it.

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7yr ago

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Maker

@timwinfree picked “Safety at Your Fingertips” 😉Thank you!

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7yr ago

Songbox

This is a great idea, and may I suggest that you're limiting yourself by aiming this only at ride-share drivers. I would DEFINITELY buy one of these for my wife and probably even myself. It's not a very safe world out there.

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7yr ago

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Maker

@mickc79 Thank you very much! We will be thinking about other user cases in the near future and thank you very much for confirming that we should!

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7yr ago

@mickc79 Crime rate is at a what, 30 year low? We've been never be safer than we are today.

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7yr ago

@mickc79 Pizza Delivery Drivers come to mind

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7yr ago

Lemon Squeezy

Seems like a very useful idea, having quick access to something like this must be a great comfort, I'm sure if I was a driver I'd look into getting one. Is it possible to also notify Uber / Lyft with this button too? Do those guys have any sort of panic mode built into their driver apps already that you could trigger?

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7yr ago

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Maker

@liammckay Thank you very much for your feedback and questions! Just last week, Lyft released a shortcut to call emergency within the app. In our opinion, this is not an effective solution. If the driver has an emergency during a ride, in order to use the emergency shortcut within the app, he/she would need to switch from e.g. google map, go to the driver app, tap a little icon for the emergency and confirm the need to call. If the emergency is "while driving" the driver cannot safely do all of this. Also, we want to give a tool to use in case there is a dangerous situation with a rider where the driver cannot just grab the phone and call 911. We think that the best solution would be to actually integrate our system in their app and to use our button to trigger the emergency texts/calls.

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7yr ago

This is an app that will be invaluable for an Uber or Lyft driver - or any driver - who may find themselves in a dangerous or unsafe situation. Thank you!

Pros:

easy to use, reasonably priced

Cons:

Does the button have a battery? What is the life? Does it let you know when you need to replace the battery?

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7yr ago

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Maker

Hi! Thank you very much for your feedback!. Yes, the button comes with a battery included (plus a second battery for free). The battery life is about 12 months and the app tells you the battery level!

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7yr ago

I already witnessing this obvious nightmare of my wife driving around our megapolis and pushing this button either by a mistake or by the scare of other drives behavior

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7yr ago

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Maker

@dmitry_rogov1 Hi, thank you for your feedback. I'm not sure that I'm getting exactly your point: OkMe is an emergency button for ride-share drivers. It's a tool that wants to help out drivers in case something is going wrong with a rider during a trip. Thank you!

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7yr ago

@pompilio_fiore No, this is not the bad kind of a feedback. I am just trying to imagine if such a situation is possible. The situation I am talking about is when a driver pushes the button occasionally as this button is placed almost right under the fingers.

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7yr ago

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Maker

@dmitry_rogov1 Thank you for your comment. It would be very difficult to push the button by accident but in case you do, you have 10 seconds to push it again before trigging the emergency text!

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7yr ago

@pompilio_fiore Oh! that's a really nice option. Well, it mitigates my fears!))

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7yr ago

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Maker

@dmitry_rogov1 Thank you!

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7yr ago

Suave

This could be a huge one for taxi drivers too. Although relying on an emergency contact could be dangerous if they are inactive. Shouldn’t this go straight to the police?

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7yr ago

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Maker

@jonasalmut Thank you very much for your feedback and questions! Some drivers like the fact that you can put family and friends numbers, but you are absolutely right about notifying the police too: we will have a premium version of the app that includes also this feature! At the moment we are focusing on the ride-share driver's community, but cabs, for sure, are another category that will be explored.

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7yr ago

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Maker

Hi Product Hunt and thank you very much @chrismessina for helping us out! My technical co-founder @jscuba and I, are very excited to be launching "OkMe" in this amazing community! 🔘 "OkMe" is the PANIC BUTTON FOR UBER & LYFT DRIVERS: in case of an emergency during a ride, the driver can push this physical Bluetooth button (attached in the back of the steering wheel) and OkMe app will silently send emergency text/live GPS to pre-entered contact(s). 🚗 A group of drivers in San Diego, CA have been testing OkMe with positive feedback and today we will start accepting orders ($9.99 the button - launch offer- and $0.99/week for the app)! 👂 We are here to hear your feedback, ideas and anything else! Cheers, Pompilio and Jeff | OkMe - Panic button for ride-share drivers (www.okme.info)

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7yr ago

StartupSoft's Teams Digest

@pompilio_fiore awesome idea! maybe even better if you could provide a service that would notify the police. If a driver works graveyard shifts, chances are everyone on their contact list would be out of reach. I realize, such service wouldn't be possible at this price point, but I'm sure, people would be willing to pay more and be safe. Another thing is maybe the design of the button should be not so bright, and match the most popular car interior colors, like black or beige, or light grey. So the riders wouldn't be able to see the button. And also, how about the integration with the car-sharing apps that would send out the name of the person who's currently with the driver?

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7yr ago

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Maker

@kay_larina Thank you very much for your feedback! Some drivers like the fact that you can put family and friends numbers, but you are absolutely right about notifying the police too: we will have a premium version of the app that includes also this feature! And you are right about the color of the button too :) Soon you will be able to pick a black button as well! But even now, the button is attached with velcro in the back of the steering wheel, so you cannot see it. The drivers that have been testing OkMe didn't say anything about the color (and I actually asked them) but I agree with you for, at least, to have a dark color to pick! The integration that you mentioned could be something to think about in a second moment. For now, we are focusing on traction and on making a product based on the needs of the users by constantly talking to them and getting feedback! Thank you very much for sharing all of these ideas! 🙏

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7yr ago

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