Uber Movement: service to offer traffic data to cities

Uber has announced a new initiative, dubbed Uber Movement, which will see the smart cab service sharing traffic data with city planners, researchers and more.

The service said it launched the initiative after numerous requests from cities for access to the data.

“Making our cities move more efficiently matters to us all. That’s why we’re providing access to anonymized data from over two billion trips to help improve urban planning around the world,” the company wrote on the Uber Movement website.

Uber says that the service will allow city planners to measure the impact of infrastructure improvements and major events, as well as allowing them to make better decisions regarding future plans.

Uber Movement won’t be limited to city planners and researchers only though, as they’ve confirmed that the data will be made available to everyone “in the coming months”.

Uber Movement is the latest service from Uber, and they don’t seem to be charging for it…

Of course, Uber has been under fire since its inception for privacy issues, but it insists that the new initiative ticks all the boxes.

“Preserving rider and driver privacy is our #1 priority. All data is anonymised and aggregated to ensure no personally identifiable information or user behaviour can be surfaced through the Movement tool.”