Uber (NYSE: UBER) has announced that it will be offering a new safety feature for users in three U.S. cities. The new feature will allow drivers and raiders to send audio recordings of their trips to the company in case of any safety issues.
Two years ago, Uber disclosed that it had received reports of 6,000 sexual assaults over the course of 2.3 billion trips made in the U.S. between 2017 and 2018. Since that information was released, the company has been attempting to improve its image and its safety capabilities.
The feature is being tested by users in Kansas City, Missouri; Louisville, Kentucky; and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. The feature has been widely available in Latin America for two years. According to company officials, the roll-out in Latin America shed light on how the company should go about protecting privacy, transparency, and convenience.
"We expect that people will be very accepting of this feature," Uber Vice President of Product Management Sachin Kansal. "As we learn from those cities and get feedback, we can expand it further."
The new recording capabilities will be accessible through the Uber app and will be encrypted before storage. If a safety incident occurs, the user can opt to send the recording to Uber staff who can then decrypt the file. This means that the recording will not be playable for app users, and Uber states that it will only be able to access the recording if an incident report is submitted.
One concern that has come into play is the issue of consent. According to Uber's senior manager of public policy, Uttara Sivaram, the feature is first being launched in areas with one-party consent laws.
According to the company site, users will not receive a notification stating that a recording is actually taking place. Currently, users of the Uber app will be notified that they may be recorded during their ride when they are matched with their driver. All recordings must be initiated by either a rider or driver.
Riders and drivers can't entirely opt-out of having their rides recorded by the other party. Instead, the company site says that riders who feel uncomfortable being recorded should cancel their trips if the app notifies them that a recording may be created by their driver's app. The company also states that it will delete any audio recordings it receives that aren't relevant to a safety concern.
Investors and users are also awaiting Uber's report on the safety issues encountered by users during 2019 and 2020.