inDrive says smarter pickup locations could reduce delays, while helping drivers spend less time circling busy commercial and transport hubs.
inDrive is rolling out two new pickup features in Johannesburg and Cape Town, aimed at reducing one of the most persistent frustrations in e-hailing: passengers and drivers struggling to find each other.
The global mobility platform says SA is the first market to receive Panorama View and Recommended Pickup Points, which are designed to improve the accuracy of pickup locations before a journey begins.
According to a statement, Panorama View adds street-level imagery to the pickup process, allowing passengers to view a 360-degree panorama of their selected meeting point rather than relying solely on a map pin.
The feature is intended to help passengers identify entrances, landmarks and street corners more easily, particularly at locations such as shopping centres, office parks, apartment complexes and transport hubs where several potential pickup points may be close together.
If street-level imagery is unavailable, the panorama option does not appear and the conventional pickup map remains available.
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Recommended Pickup Points, according to the e-hailer, takes a different approach, using location data to suggest places where passengers are easier for drivers to find.
inDrive says this should reduce missed pickups, unnecessary circling and the amount of back-and-forth messaging needed to establish a meeting point.
The company says passengers and drivers can continue using in-app chat when additional clarification is required.
The new features address a particularly familiar problem in SA, where passengers often describe their location using nearby landmarks, petrol stations, shopping-centre entrances or businesses.
inDrive country representative Ashif Black says more precise pickup locations can benefit both sides of the platform.
“The beginning of a ride sets the tone for the entire journey together, and being able to find one another efficiently without delay ensures the driver isn’t wasting time and, by extension, earning capability, and that passengers aren’t late getting where they need to be or stuck waiting longer than necessary in potentially unsafe locations,” notes Black.
The company says the technology should also reduce the time drivers spend navigating busy city blocks or searching for passengers at difficult access points.
This has implications beyond convenience. More accurate pickup locations could improve driver utilisation by reducing waiting and search times, potentially allowing drivers to complete more trips during a working day.
inDrive’s data shows that major shopping and commercial hubs account for a significant share of ride requests in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
In Johannesburg, Eastgate Shopping Centre leads by ride volume, followed by central Johannesburg, Jabulani Mall and Braamfontein. Mall of Africa and Sandton City also feature among the city’s prominent pickup locations.
In Cape Town, Liberty Promenade has the highest ride volume, followed by central Cape Town, Zevenwacht Mall and Canal Walk Shopping Centre.
These locations illustrate the challenge faced by e-hailing platforms: a single destination can contain multiple entrances, roads and designated pickup areas, making a conventional map pin insufficiently precise.
“In major cities where people are often meeting at shopping centres, office parks, apartment complexes and busy transport hubs with several entrances or pickup points within a very small area, these features help make the pickup process that much quicker and smoother,” adds Black.
The rollout also builds on inDrive’s broader efforts to differentiate its ride-hailing platform through app-based features.
Panorama View and Recommended Pickup Points are currently available to inDrive users in Johannesburg and Cape Town, with the company saying availability will expand as street-level imagery becomes available in additional areas.
inDrive is not the first e-hailing platform to use technology to address the difficulty of matching riders and drivers at busy pickup locations. Uber introduced a suite of “tricky pickup” tools in 2018, including Spotlight, Pickup Messages and live-location sharing.
Since 2023, Bolt has also been using location-based tools in its South African platform, including real-time location sharing and designated airport pickup points, while it introduced pickup codes in June 2026 to help riders and drivers identify the correct vehicle.
