Lyft CEO David Risher remembers the hard conversations with his late mother about the realities of aging.
“One of the most unpleasant conversations I’ve ever held with her was: ‘Mom, I think it’s time for you to turn the car and the keys” Assets.
His personal experience – coupled with the demographic shift where 80 million It is expected that people are up to 2040 from the age of 65-to think about the CEO how the company can serve better with several million dollars older adults. Today, less than 6% of Lyft’s passengers are over 65 years old, according to the company.
This week, Lyft announced “Lyft Silver” to make her rapid service of older adults more attractive. Risher thought of his mother, who embodied the wishes of many older adults: absolutely with them to stay around them and have easy access to travel.
“The physical world is a really important part of our experience, and that is only true if they get older,” says Risher.
The top priority for Risher during product development was to ensure that it is “easy to use for humans”. The program will therefore have larger fonts and fewer options to choose from. During the research phase, the team also found that older adults feared that they would do something wrong that could prevent them from using it. To remedy this, Lyft Silver will have a more customer -oriented button on the top of the screen, so that “everything from” I’m not sure who my driver “until” I think I only have the wrong goal, “says Risher.
Supervisors and family members are a central component of Lyft Silver. Older adults who use the platform can easily share their trips with a loved one or caretaker who can add money to their remaining amount if necessary. And the users are more often combined with cars that can get on and off for comfort and space. Lyft worked with the Foundation for Social Liaisoning and self -help for older people to design the function.
This week the option of switching your interface to Silver is open, and the company will enroll up to 25,000 people into the offer. The monitoring of user habits informs whether the service is fully introduced or not under a subscription model. “It’s really just about getting so many people to try it and giving us feedback,” says Risher.
The rival of the passenger, Uber, has started a similar service than more Pursue Recognize that the reaction to Boomer’s needs is a clever economic step.
“It’s good for business, but I think it’s just good for society,” says Risther.
This story was originally on Fortune.com