Uber seems to be growing in popularity locally. The ridesharing app has proved quite divisive here in South Africa (at least to the old taxi services), but has proved impervious to competition overseas. Uber has however encountered a few issues raised by users with regard to knowing which car you've hailed. While the service currently allows you to see how far the ride is from your location, if for example multiple cars are hailed to the same location, how do you know which one is yours? To that end, Uber is experimenting with a colour coded lighting system called SPOT.

When you hail a ride and cannot locate the car, you can activate a light on the vehicle's windscreen from your smartphone, which corresponds to the light shown on your mobile device. It also works the other way, as you can light up your smartphone screen to a specific colour, so your Uber driver can spot you.

The service is only available in Seattle for the moment, with Uber yet to detail its expansion into other locations, nor how much it costs to equip each vehicle with one of these light strips. Regardless of these factors, it's easy to see SPOT taking off, as it would eliminate the need to have that awkward conversation to find out if this is your Uber.