Uber planning safety feature which let you record audio during a ride

Given the poorly regulated nature of ride-sharing services safety of passengers have always been a prominent issue. This is particularly true for vulnerable passengers, which a number of high profile cases of passengers being assaulted by drivers.

Uber has introduced a number of features in their app to help drivers feel safer, such as sharing your trip with a key contact and a button to call emergency services.

Now reverse engineer Jane Manchung Wong has uncovered a new feature Uber has been working on which would allow riders to record audio of a journey and send it to Uber.

The feature offers to:

Record audio to send Uber if you’re uncomfortable on your ride.

It is unclear if audio is immediately uploaded to Uber doing the process, or if riders will have to manually send the audio at a later point. An automatic process would, of course, be more effective, but also has significant privacy implications for both the driver and passenger.

What do our readers think of this new feature? Let us know in the comments.