ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) — Starting on Tuesday, March 14th, Uber passengers in the Roanoke area will be able to take advantage of a new safety feature that allows riders to record audio during trips directly through the app.
For over a year now, Uber has been testing this feature in select cities across the nation. Roanoke, among several new regions, will be further additions to this pilot program. The audio recording feature is available in over a dozen countries and over 70 cities in the U.S.
“We hope that by expanding this tool, we can continue to help give riders and drivers peace of mind and encourage more comfortable interactions while on trips,” said Andi Pimentel Dunn, Product Manager at Uber.
You can find the new feature in the Safety Toolkit section of the app. Once enabled, drivers and riders can start and stop the recording at any point during their trip. If a driver chooses to record audio from the trip, the rider will be notified through their app accordingly. Oppositely, the driver will not be notified if the rider chooses to use the audio record feature.
After an audio recording is completed, the audio file is stored directly on the user’s device. No one will be able to listen to the file, including Uber, unless a driver or rider submits a safety report to Uber and attaches the file. If a safety report is filed, a trained safety agent will be able to review the audio.
This tool not only promotes the overall safety of the trip but also helps Uber determine an action plan if a safety report is filed. The audio recording feature is one of the many safety tools Uber promotes on their app.
