Uber CEO says the company is on track for its IPO in 2019 and unveils new security features

Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive of Uber Technologies Inc., said on Wednesday that the car transport company was about to launch a first public offering next year and did not intend to sell its self-driving branch .

Khosrowshahi told Reuters in an interview that the company was not considering selling its advanced technology group "at the moment".

"In the end, it's a big asset that we build and we can monetize it as we want it.This is not something we think at this point," he said. . Khosrowshahi also said the company was "rather optimistic," the company being able to resume autonomous car testing later this year after a fatal accident involving an Uber autonomous car in Tempe, Arizona, in March.

Uber also rolled out new features Wednesday to enhance the safety of drivers and passengers to restore confidence in the brand.

The transport company has created a feature on its application to reach passengers and drivers if it detects an accident or an unexpected stop. Drivers will also have access to a hands-free feature to take passengers without touching their phones, and they will no longer see detailed data where they have retrieved passengers in the past.

"This is just the beginning of the trip for Uber," Khosrowshahi said Wednesday when the company's new features were unveiled in New York. "We want Uber to be the safest transportation platform on the planet."

Uber plans to use location data to determine if a stop seems unusual because there is no traffic or if a car has not arrived at its destination. If there is a prolonged and unexpected stop during a trip, the rider and the driver will receive a driving verification notification to ask if all is well.

The company has also added a button to its application that allows drivers to contact emergency services, similar to the one it created for passengers in March. Uber says that using the button is more effective than calling 911 because the Uber app contains the exact location of the vehicle.

By going from the front, Uber will conceal specific pickup and deposit addresses in the driver 's journey history, so that only the area where a trip has started and ended will appear on the trip. Driver's application, not the address.

Khosrowshahi has made security one of his top priorities since joining the company as a CEO a year ago. In April, Uber began doing criminal background checks on US drivers and hired a company to continuously monitor criminal arrests.

The moves are an attempt to repair Uber's reputation after a wave of major scandals and bad press. About two weeks after the start of Khosrowshahi, the London transport regulator decided to withdraw its license from Uber, saying that the company risked compromising public safety. Khosrowshahi apologized, flew to London to meet the officials and promised to change. A court finally granted a license to Uber, although much shorter than normal, so that it could be evaluated.

Since being commissioned in 2009, Uber has been accused of reports of drivers berthing passengers, including sexual assault charges. Last year, the state of Colorado fined the company $ 8.9 million for allowing people who have committed criminal offenses or serious traffic offenses to work as drivers. The Public Services Commission said nearly 60 people had been allowed to drive in the state despite previous convictions or serious traffic offenses, including drunk driving.

Despite the scandals, Uber 's attendance is increasing, although it is struggling to earn money before the offer of public stock planned by Khosrowshahi next year. The San Francisco company lost $ 891 million in the quarter ended last June, after posting a loss of $ 1.06 billion in the same period last year.

Khosrowshahi, 49, an Iranian refugee, worked for Expedia and his parent company for 19 years before replacing Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber, innovative but innovative. Analysts say that he has created a business culture of honesty that employees adhere to.

On Wednesday, Khosrowshahi said he hoped Uber would be the standard against which other transport stakeholders would be evaluated in terms of security.

"In the end, we want you to know, when you get into this car, whether you're a pilot or a pilot, Uber has everything to gain," he said.