Uber unveiled some new features at its annual product showcase. Cheddar News discussed some of these products, most of which are geared toward families, along with group grocery orders and group rides.

<div class="block">Uber unveiled some new features at its annual product showcase. Cheddar News discussed some of these products, most of which are geared toward families, along with group grocery orders and group rides.</div>

Uber Unveils New Products

And I do want to switch gears a bit here because at this point, we're all used to how ride share apps fit into our lives. I'm sure you use them often or have at some point. But Uber has some new features coming to you that it hopes will make things a bit easier. Senior reporter Michelle was at the company's annual product showcase to learn more. I'll I know I've heard there are a lot of updates especially for families coming. What do we need to know? Hey, so there were a lot of new products announced today and yes, many of them revolve around the family. So first for those of you looking for a car seat, you're in luck, some Ubers will come equipped with them starting in June. So this add on service can be selected when you pick a ride. It will cost an additional fee of $10. But the U but Uber is hoping that the convenience of not having to bring a car seat will be worth it. It kicks off in New York and Los Angeles and there's gonna add more cities to come. So as for drivers, they can opt into being a car seat enabled ride. Uber has partnered with manufacturer Nuna who will provide the car seats to the drivers at a discounted cost and they'll also provide a technician to teach them how to install it. The other big family announcement made today was the introduction of family and team profiles. So this is actually gonna roll out next Monday in over two dozen US and Canadian cities. So basically, if a parent wants to monitor a ride, they're gonna have that ability. So on the screen, you're gonna see three different phones. The phone on the left is the parent, the middle phone is the teen phone and the right is the driver's phone. So when a teen ride is called, that's the one in the middle, the driver is notified that this will be a teen ride. The parent can see the location and also contact the driver. They if they want at any time. Now, if the location has changed and you know, that's like when you tell your parents you're going to your friend's house and then end up going somewhere else. The account owner, your parents will get a notification, other features like location, tracking, pin code verification and other things cannot be turned off on a teen profile. So I spoke to Uber's director of operations, Daniel Smith who said that the car seat was a big pain point for families who wanted to use their service and the teen profiles are something to help families save time. Should Uber wants to make things quote safer and easier? A more effortless experience in trying to juggle all the things that families do today. Any other announcements? Uh Michelle that Uber made this big event and is it the first of its kind? I had heard of this before they do this annually. Dara came out and spoke a little bit to the crowd. Um He did, he showed off a little bit of his shops in a preview video. Um but he did announce also a couple of other features which include group grocery orders and group rides. So for group grocery orders, you can share a cart on Uber eats with friends and family, you can set deadlines when they have to have their items in by as for group rides, I know we've all been misusing that extra stop feature to pick up French. So I remember that each stop is supposed to be two minutes or less which let's face it. We don't all really abide by. So this will ensure that you can pick up multiple people with ease and also not waste the driver's time. Now, if you're on vacation, Uber Central will help you coordinate pickups and travel for each day of your trip because they can come in handy if you're a large group, they actually use the Kardashian family on camera as an example. Now this will be at hospitality concierge is at hotels which include Marriotts and if you happen to be in Greece this summer and need a boat ride. Uber boat will be available to take you to Mykonos. Now, there's also another option now to call an Uber without the app. So you can call 1833 use Uber. Now, this is really meant for people who might not be as adept with technology or might be more used to the old fashioned way of calling for a car. So you're gonna get a verbal confirmation and price quote on the phone and all the details about your ride will be texted to your phone. So all these features will be rolling out soon. Uber Boat, Michelle. I mean, I'm no grease or vacation expert by any means, but somebody tells me to get to know that could be a popular option. They had couple of these cool features when I was in Cannes one year, they did offer Uber Copter to for shared helicopter rides. They do do this once in a while, especially in European vacation cities. I'm actually pretty interested in the calling for an Uber. I think this will give them another market, especially people who don't really use smartphones. Yeah, I think that's a really good point. Fascinating stuff. Ok, Michelle Castillo, our senior reporter Michelle. Thank you.