New safety feature: How to record audio during an Uber ride

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Charlotte is one of a handful of cities with access to a new safety feature in the Uber app that records the audio during a trip.

The ride-share company hopes the new feature will both prevent incidents and document them if they do happen, protecting both riders and drivers.

“They can go into their Uber App and set up audio recording through the safety toolkit. The Safety toolkit is that little Blue Shield that you see on your home screen,” explained Uber Product Manager Andi Pimentel Dunn.

Citing safety as a company value, Uber says riders and drivers can start recording the audio at any point during a trip.

“We actually do not let any riders or drivers know in the moment that recording starts that recording has started just to, you know, an abundance of caution to avoid escalating a potential safety conflict,” said Pimentel Dunn.

Once that audio is recorded, it’s saved and encrypted on the device. You can’t go back and listen to it, and neither can Uber.

“The only way that our support team can ever gain access to those recordings is if and when the user decides to attach that recording to a safety report when they’re letting us know that there was a safety incident,” said Pimentel Dunn.

» Catch up on WBTV’s Safety First series here

Uber says in the markets that have already tried out the new feature, riders and drivers say they feel more secure knowing they can safely record everything that happens in the car.

“99.9% of Uber trips end without a serious safety incident,” said Pimentel Dunn. “And that being said, to us, one incident is one too many, so we want to lean into technology as much as we can to do everything possible to make the platform safer.”

If, after 7 days, the user does not submit the recording, the recording will expire from the device. Users will receive an in-app notification a day before this happens, letting them know recording will be deleted so they have a chance to submit a safety report with audio attached, if they want to. Users can also manually delete recordings any time on the “Trip Details” page.

The audio recordings are just the latest in an arsenal of safety features, including live help with a Safety Agent, an in-app emergency button, and continuous background checks for drivers.

The feature is officially live for Charlotte-area users. The audio recording feature was piloted in 2019 in Latin America and is currently live in more than a dozen countries and a handful of U.S. cities.

Copyright 2023 WBTV. All rights reserved.