Uber is trialling video recording during rides in an effort to improve the safety of its users.

On Thursday, the ride hailing app announced that it was allowing drivers in specific cities to use the front-facing camera on their phones to record video through Uber’s Driver app.

The company already allows in-app audio recording to riders and drivers in more than a dozen countries. The feature was first rolled out in three US cities last year.

‘Since the launch of Audio Recording, we’ve been exploring the ability to allow drivers to choose to record video using the front-facing camera on their smartphone, similar to a dashcam,’ said Uber in a statement.

‘Many drivers use traditional dashcams today, but those can require extensive setup and can come with a hefty price tag,’

Uber’s video recording feature will be free and can be set up in Uber’s Driver app.

Once it’s enabled, drivers can record both video and audio on every trip. When placed in a phone mount, the front-facing camera has a view of the vehicle’s interior.

‘Because we built this feature on top of our existing Audio Recording technology, it comes with the same privacy protections—so no one, including the driver, can access the recording unless that driver chooses to share it with Uber,’

The feature is now being rolled out for ‘select drivers’ in New York City, Cincinnati and Louisville, as well as in Santos and João Pessoa, Brazil.

Uber is also expanding its audio recording capability to Cincinnati, Nashville, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Antonio and Tucson next month, saying it has already ‘seen many instances’ where the technology has been useful in a safety incident.

Audio recordings can be submitted by either drivers or riders to Uber alongside safety reports. These recording are encrypted and stored directly on the driver or rider’s device.

Uber also said that it was cracking down on rider account names and freezing accounts with names that are clearly fake.

To prevent discrimination based on names, Uber allows riders to update their name in the app. The company said that seen some riders were using fake names — such as the names of cartoon characters or even offensive language.

‘These accounts will remain blocked until riders update or validate their account names with our support agents,’ said Uber.

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