New ride-sharing app launched in Atlanta offers armed drivers for protection

Black Wolf is a new ridesharing app recently launched in Atlanta that will compete with Uber and Lyft, but with one caveat, your driver can be armed with a gun for your safety and protection. 

Brown’s service is being sold as “executive protection” for people who are worried about their personal safety, as the country reels from a seemingly never-ending barrage of mass shootings and mundane interactions that quickly escalate into gun violence.

Black Wolf founder Kerry King Brown told a local Atlanta news station about the APP saying “What I’m creating is a necessary evil. It’s a necessity.”

Since launching his APP last week, Brown’s company has gained widespread attention over the weekend after going viral on Reddit. Brown says his new ride-sharing app, “Black Wolf,” lets you request a driver who is armed. The app, which launched just last week, reportedly already has 79,000 downloads.

Black Wolf owner told Atlanta First News that drivers needed to pass a background check and are trained to de-escalate any situation if a confrontation should occur on the road.

Brown said he has worked as a private investigator and bodyguard and that many of the drivers who work for the company come from military and security backgrounds.

The free app is available on Apple’s App Store and Google Play and features three different services, Armed Executive Protection, Unarmed Executive Protection, and School Executive Protection. The school-based option is being marketed as a way to send children to school more safely.

The company Facebook page says, “Every Black Wolf App vehicle comes equipped with GPS Tracking and Live-streaming technology that allows our riders to share with their loved ones.”

Brown said, “We’re about security and safety at all times”. In describing his drivers, Brown says he and his drivers are legally armed with experience in the military, law enforcement, or private security. 

He says they go through background checks and that they’re trained to de-escalate potentially dangerous situations. “We’re not here to fight anybody, we’re not here to draw guns. Even though it says armed, we’re trained not to do that,” he said.

Passengers can also request that Drivers stay with them after they reach their destination, which starts a new charge. “There’s a wait option on the app. You touch wait, click on it, [and] it starts the clock,” said Brown.

The base price for this service is $60 for an armed driver and $50 if they’re unarmed. You pay about $1.75 a mile after that.

“I’m catering to the people who see this as a value who want to take their life seriously,” said Brown. Currently, the service is only available across greater Atlanta.