Uber introduces in-ride audio recording and 2FA to India

Uber announced a slew of safety features for the Indian market today at an event in New Delhi, including a two-factor authentication through a PIN on the app. The company’s rival Ola has had such verification methodology through SMS messages in 2017.

The ride-hailing company launched the safety PIN feature for rides in the US last September. Now, it’s rolling out this feature for riders in India.  The feature will verify your rides, and help you identify the correct car.

Here’s how you can enable it:

• Open the Uber app on your phone, and tap on Settings.
• Under the Safety section, tap on Verify your rides.
• Tap on Use PIN to verify rides toggle. You can either choose to verify all rides or trips you take at night (9 PM to 6 AM).

Once this feature has been enabled, the next time you take an Uber ride, you’ll see a PIN in the app next to the driver information. Check out the video below for a demo.

We’re launching a new safety feature in the ?? & ?? to help you get in the right ride. Here's how it works:

?The rider receives a unique 4 digit PIN for their ride in the app
?Rider shares PIN with driver
?The trip only begins in the app once the driver enters the right PIN pic.twitter.com/wvR6dkQKCQ

— Uber (@Uber) January 8, 2020

Adding to this, Uber announced it will bring in-ride audio recording feature to India in the near future. Last November, the company introduced this feature in Brazil and Mexico. The recording stays on the device an encrypted form to keep the conversation private. Neither the rider nor the driver is privy to listen to the recording. However, the rider can submit the recording to the company for a review.

The ride-sharing company also launched a feature called RideCheck to proactively check if you’re fine when the vehicle stops for a long time. You can initiate a RideCheck to inform uber if the vehicle has broken down or has been involved in an accident.

Uber introduced all these features in various markets last year, now it’s just bringing them to the Indian market to keep rider-safety at par with them.