Uber Malaysia has introduced Family Profiles, which allows up to 10 people to share a single payment method. The idea seems to be for people who often use public transport, but do not have a credit card.
Users are able to add others to their Family Profile through the Uber app, after which the added person will be asked to confirm the acceptance. Once this is done, anyone sharing the profile will be able to bill rides directly to the Family Profile.
The applications of this feature are intriguing. It allows families to set a single credit card for payment; which means that children who own smartphones (and more than a few do these days) will be able to call for Uber rides while still having their parents pay for the trip. It should also ideally mean that these children don’t have to go around carrying bus fare or money for a taxi.
Interestingly, Uber points out that it doesn’t quite care if the people sharing the Family Profile are actually related. The ride-sharing service says that it is allowing people to decide who is able to use the same payment; and seems to think that a group of friends would be more than happy to pay for each other’s transportation.
