Uber is now letting parents watch their teens via a live stream of their rides.
The option uses the rear-facing camera on Uber drivers’ phones, allowing a guardian to view a live video of the trip, the ride-hailing company said on Tuesday.
Uber is debuting the feature as a new school year ramps up. It’s “designed to give parents added peace of mind when their teen is on the go,” the company said.
When an Uber trip begins for a teen user, their guardian receives a push notification that live video is available. The teen and their guardian have to be registered as such in the Uber app.
The driver and teen receive a notification once a guardian starts viewing the livestream, Uber said. No one, including the teen, the driver, or the guardian, can access the video after the ride ends.
Uber
“The feature is designed for quick check-ins, giving parents another way to feel confident everything on their teen’s trip is going smoothly,” Uber said.
The live-streaming feature is being tested in nine cities: Atlanta, Phoenix, Orlando, Raleigh-Durham, Portland, San Antonio, Cleveland, Rhode Island, and El Paso. Uber said that the feature will roll out across the US “over the coming weeks.”
Uber is unveiling the feature as it continues to face questions about rider safety. The company is still defending itself from thousands of claims that some of its drivers sexually assaulted riders.
Uber launched its teen accounts feature in 2023. Since then, users of the feature have completed “tens of millions” of trips on the app, the company said. The company already offers some safety features for teen users, such as optional audio recording.
The company has grown its teen rides business as the number of teenagers with driver’s licenses has declined over the past two decades.
Instead of driving themselves and buying their first cars, some teenagers are turning to ride-hailing services like Uber, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on a podcast interview last year.
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