Two years ago, Uber introduced an audio recording option for rides in Latin America. Now that same system is heading to the US in case rides don't go smoothly.
As Reuters reports, Uber classes audio recordings as a safety feature available to both drivers and riders. The ridesharing service intends to pilot the recordings in three US cities later this month: Kansas City, Missouri, Louisville, Kentucky and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.
Both the Uber and Uber Driver apps located in these cities will gain the ability to start an audio recording through the Safety Toolkit. Each recording is encrypted and stored on your smartphone, that way ensuring privacy is maintained until the user decides they want to share it with Uber as a way of reporting an safety concern. And sharing is easy, too, simply file a report through the app and attach the audio file as evidence.
Uber says the recordings help the company to investigate incidents and take appropriate action if necessary. Nobody gets to hear the recording except the Uber Safety team, not even the rider or driver can listen back to it on their device.
It's important to note that other parties in the vehicle won't know you are recording the conversation, and depending on the storage requirements, some individuals (riders or drivers) could choose to record every ride. Those recordings can be interrupted, though, if the phone receives a call as the call will take over control of the microphone if answered.
Across Latin America, Uber now allows audio recordings to occur in 14 countries. Uttara Sivaram, Uber's senior manager of public policy, says Uber is focusing on "U.S. jurisdictions with one party consent laws" to begin with, but plans to expand the feature further once there's enough feedback from the three pilot cities.