A study conducted by the University of Texas Health Science Center shows that using ride-hailing services, like Uber, is beneficial to customers and their safety in certain instances where the person should not be driving themselves.

"[Ride-hailing is] fantastic for DUI, it pretty much eliminates it and it's also great for folks with challenges," said David Mountain, an Uber driver. "Elderly and infirm people are in my car all the time and you know, are very happy about it. Occasionally also I get to work as a de facto ambulance which is kind of fascinating. It's not great from the driver's standpoint, I’m not a medic and I'm really hoping you don't leave a mess for the next person, but I get why you would use me instead of an ambulance."

A first-of-its-kind study done by the University of Texas Health Science Center showed that motor vehicle traumas on Friday and Saturday nights in Houston have decreased by 24%. Notably, for drivers under 30 -- the age range most likely to use ride-hailing -- there was a 40% decrease in motor vehicle crash traumas. The study also found after requesting information on impaired driving convictions from Harris County, Texas, that convictions have decreased significantly.

In September, Anheuser-Busch, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and Uber launched the campaign "Decide to Ride," which is aimed at helping to prevent and end drunken driving. Uber offers discounts to impaired drivers looking for a ride home.

According to the CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, between 1993-2014, 111 million drivers self-reported having episodes of alcohol-impaired driving. In 2016, there were more than 1 million people arrested for driving while impaired by alcohol, the CDC said. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that every day, approximately 28 people die in the U.S. due to drunken driving, and despite that number having reached its lowest percentage in 2019 since 1982, more than 10,000 people lost their lives to drunken driving in 2019.