Amid a surge in violence in Tijuana, ride-hailing apps and authorities implement new safety measures

On July 24, Uber driver Adara Paulina Hernández left home at dawn to start a new shift. She didn’t make it back. One week later, she was found dead.

Hernández is one of 13 ride-sharing drivers who have been murdered in Tijuana, in northern Mexico, in 2024 — twice as many as the previous year. Passengers, too, have fallen prey to crime in the city, ranked sixth on a 2023 list of the world’s 50 most dangerous cities compiled by a Mexican NGO. Amid this surge in violence, authorities and ride-hailing platforms have begun implementing a new security measure in tandem with the state’s law enforcement agencies, and enforcing an older one — to mixed results.

“App workers on the streets are virtually unprotected. Neither labor nor city authorities are doing enough,” Carmen Valadez, a member of the Tijuana Workers’ Union, told Rest of World .

In April, Uber launched a panic button on its app in partnership with the Baja California state’s Secretariat of Citizen Security. When a passenger or driver presses the button, an alarm is sent to one of seven regional emergency centers housing 911 and other helpline response units, which dispatch the incident to the corresponding law enforcement or medical team. There, the alarm is channelled to the municipal police, activating real-time tracking of the journey and relaying information about the car and the driver to the authorities.

The button in the Uber app was activated 190 times between April and July, according to data obtained by Rest of World through a freedom of information request. All activations were done “to test the button,” Alfredo Gallardo, deputy director of emergency operations at the centers, told Rest of World .

According to the agreement between Uber and state authorities, the button is for emergencies “that put the life, integrity, or property of people at risk.” Gerardo Díaz, coordinator of the emergency center in Tijuana, told Rest of World that “this button is intended for priority one emergencies, which means that life is in danger.”

One driver, who requested anonymity for fear of his safety, told Rest of World that accessing the panic button in the app is a two-step process. “If someone’s coming at you with a weapon or something, you won’t make it,” he said.

Drivers have been required to register with the Sustainable Mobility Institute of Baja California (IMOS) since 2020. Following the abduction and murder of Paola Bañuelos, a Didi passenger in the city of Mexicali, in July, IMOS stepped up its enforcement of penalties for drivers who failed to register — a process that includes submitting a criminal record and drug test results, among other documents.

Rideshare platforms have not informed drivers that registration is mandatory, Jorge Alberto Gutiérrez, executive director of IMOS, told Rest of World. Only 1,000 of the approximately 25,000 drivers operating in the state between May and June were registered, he said.

Failure to register results in fines of up to $56,000 pesos ($2,800) and vehicle confiscation. “As of September 1, [2024], those who are not registered will not be able to operate,” said Gutiérrez. While the number of drivers registered with IMOS reached nearly 7,000 by the end of August, it still accounted for less than a third of the fleet operating in the state.

Registering with IMOS requires documents that cost around $3,400 pesos ($170) to process. The driver who requested anonymity said he begrudgingly completed the process. “It’s a lot of money, but our safety hasn’t improved. I don’t see the point,” he said.

Meanwhile, violence continues to pummel the city. On August 11, José Eduardo Mora, a Didi driver in Tijuana, disappeared. Two days later, he was found in a hospital in the city with life-threatening head injuries, from which he later died.

Uber declined an interview request from Rest of World , saying it “does not seem appropriate to comment on Uber’s actions in regards to security at the moment.” Didi also declined an interview request, saying it plans to announce new safety features across Latin America by early September.

For some drivers and ride-hailing users, the recent safety measures are insufficient. "This is a systemic issue that goes deeper; no institution has the capacity to handle it,” Dayana Ayala, a rideshare app user, told Rest of World . “This partnership between the government and the platform is nothing more than a Band-Aid solution.”

A few days after Hernández’s body was discovered, the Baja California attorney general’s office said that her disappearance was unrelated to her work as an Uber driver. The case is still under investigation and no arrests have been made.

Drivers have begun taking matters into their own hands. Some have installed cameras in their vehicles. “Starting shifts at midnight, driving people around, there comes a time when they offer you threesomes … There is a lot of harassment,” MTD, a Didi female driver who requested to be identified only by her initials for safety reasons, told Rest of World .

Others have created WhatsApp groups to connect with colleagues in real time. “We report our trips, destination, time, and passengers," Alejandra Beltran, an Uber and Didi driver, told Rest of World .

Drivers said they wished users would undergo strict verification processes similar to those required of themselves. Those working for Uber say they wish the app showed an alert when the origin or the destination of the ride is in a dangerous part of the city and that it were possible to reject it without being penalized — a feature that Didi currently offers.

Passengers — particularly women — implement their own safety measures, including using third-party safety apps like Violet Button, which are directly connected to the 911 emergency center.

One solution is for public agencies to use artificial intelligence to parse through violence-related data in order to detect unusual patterns and set off alarms, according to Jessica Izquierdo, a member of the Cybersecurity Hub at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, a private university.

“No app is 100% safe. What you do is manage risk, decreasing the probability of an incident,” Izquierdo told Rest of World . But increasing safety measures means ensuring that personal data is protected, which implies a significant economic investment, she said.

On a sunny morning in July, rideshare drivers formed a line along the dirt road where Hernández’s charred car had been discovered. They were searching for her disappeared colleague.

Some had painted a phrase on their car windows: “We are all Paulina.” ▰

Alicia Fàbregas is a freelance writer and multimedia journalist based in Tijuana, Mexico.