Uber may soon let riders record audio for safety during their trips

Uber may soon let riders record audio during their trip if they’re feeling unsafe.

Spotted by Jane Manchun Wong, the feature is an addition to Uber’s Safety Toolkit, which already features options to call authorities, report the ride directly to Uber, or alert trusted contacts of the trip’s progress.

“Record audio to send Uber if you’re uncomfortable on your ride,” reads the grammatically spotty feature description.

Uber is testing "Record Audio" in case the rider is uncomfortable with the ride pic.twitter.com/btC5C0F3CN

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) September 30, 2019

Unlike the other options, which are largely reactive, the recording audio during a ride may be particularly useful to plead cases of harassment or verbal abuse.

The addition will be particularly welcome in South Africa, where the safety of women and children has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks.

Wong, or Uber for that matter, doesn’t mention how the recordings can be used, whether it remains within the Uber app, or is stored to the phone’s internal memory after the trip.

The recording audio feature does seem to be a pending addition (Wong notes she spotted the new feature during an actual ride), but it’s not clear when it’ll make its bow in South Africa.

Feature image: Uber