How to Stay Safe in Foreign Taxis

Share your live trip status with a friend or family member via the app.

Live trip-sharing is a relatively new safety layer, but the need for it has roots in tragic cases that pushed the industry to act. Uber introduced its "Share My Trip" feature in 2015, partly in response to a high-profile 2014 case in Delhi where a passenger was assaulted by a driver — an incident that led India to temporarily ban the company and forced the global ride-hail industry to take rider-side safety more seriously. Lyft followed with similar features, and by 2018 most reputable taxi apps in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America had adopted live tracking. Even when using a traditional metered cab, you can manually share your location through Google Maps or Apple's "Share My Location," text the license plate to someone, or snap a photo of the cab's ID card. The principle is older than the technology: in the 1970s, New York cabbies were required to display a "hack license" precisely so passengers could note the driver's number — today's app-based sharing is just the digital evolution of that idea.

Check that child locks are disabled before you start moving.

Child-lock misuse has been documented as a tactic in so-called "kidnap taxis" — particularly the "express kidnapping" wave that swept Mexico City, Caracas, and parts of Brazil in the late 1990s and 2000s, where victims were driven between ATMs and forced to withdraw cash. Mexico City's response in 2007 was to roll out the "taxi seguro" (safe taxi) registration system with mandatory ID placards and GPS, and travel advisories from the U.S. State Department began explicitly warning tourists to test rear door handles before the cab moved. The simple act of opening and closing your door once before settling in — or sitting behind the front passenger seat where you have a clearer escape line — became standard advice from the U.K. Foreign Office after a string of incidents involving British travelers in Buenos Aires in 2011.

Keep your valuables (phone, passport) in your hands or lap, not on the seat.

"Smash-and-grab" thefts at red lights have plagued cities like Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, and Naples for decades. Rio saw such a spike during the run-up to the 2014 World Cup that the city installed reinforced window film on official airport taxis as part of a tourism-safety initiative. Even inside the cab, items left on the seat have a way of disappearing — there's a long-running issue in Bangkok and Manila of drivers cooperating with pickpockets at staged "traffic stops." Beyond theft, keeping your passport in your hands also matters because a passport left behind in a foreign cab can take weeks to recover; the U.S. State Department reported in 2019 that lost-passport replacement abroad surged by double digits, with taxis among the most common locations of loss. Holding your essentials physically — ideally in a zipped cross-body bag worn in front — is the simplest, oldest piece of travel advice and still the most effective.

If you feel uncomfortable, ask to stop at a well-lit public area immediately.

Trust your instincts is advice that predates the taxi era — it traces back to early 20th-century guidance for solo travelers using horse-drawn cabs in London, where cabstands near police call boxes were considered the safest exit points. The modern version emerged after several widely reported incidents: the 1990s "rogue minicab" wave in London, where unlicensed drivers preyed on women leaving nightclubs, prompted Transport for London's "Safer Travel at Night" campaign in 2003 and the creation of the Cabwise text service. More recently, Tokyo, Seoul, and Singapore have promoted convenience stores as 24-hour "safe stops" — well-lit, staffed, and camera-equipped. The same logic applies anywhere: a hotel lobby, a gas station, or a busy café gives you witnesses, lighting, and a way out. Don't worry about being polite; a driver acting in good faith will not be offended, and one acting in bad faith has already lost the right to your courtesy.