Do you sit in the front seat or backseat when you call an Uber? A debate over which option is safer has been heating up online.
In the pre-rideshare world, when taxis were king, sitting in the backseat was clearly the expectation. Many even have a divider separating the driver from their passengers. And even if you never rode in a taxi, you knew this to be the norm—movies and TV shows often featured taxis, private cars, limousines, and other methods of being driven around that almost always showed the passenger in the back and the driver in the front.
But apparently, some people feel differently when it comes to modern rideshare options.
"I'm only finding out that there are women who sit in the backseats of Ubers?" @tiredfeminist_ wrote on X last week. "I always sit in the front. There is nothing I fear more than childlock protection."
Why do people want to sit in the front seat of an Uber?
The X user is referring to a safety feature on cars in which the driver can press a button and prevent backseat passengers from being opened from the inside of the vehicle. If you're worried about potentially being kidnapped by your Uber driver, perhaps it makes sense to not want to risk them engaging the child lock feature.
Of course, the argument can also be made that there are plenty of other ways a driver determined to kidnap their passenger could do so without relying solely on locking the doors, or that locking the doors in and of itself may not be enough to prevent someone from getting out.
Rideshare passengers debate front seat vs backseat
Although some people agreed with @tiredfeminist_, others felt that sitting in the front was at least as dangerous, if not moreso. Others felt that sitting in the front seat is just weird.
What does Uber say?
Uber's official guidance states, "Whenever possible, sit in the back seat, especially if you’re riding alone. This helps ensure that you can safely exit on either side of the vehicle to avoid moving traffic, and it gives you and your driver some personal space."
Sitting in the front seat has the potential to make things more dangerous or uncomfortable for either party. Sometimes it's necessary when the car is full, and some drivers don't care either way, but there are valid reasons why others aren't okay with the idea.
Wherever you opt to sit in your rideshare, as one person pointed out, "what matters is awareness. A distracted passenger is always the easiest target."
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