Uber's app will soon begin tracking driver behaviour

The software is aimed at improving driver safety, but could raise privacy concerns

Uber Technologies Inc. has developed new technology to track when drivers of the ride-hailing app go too fast, cut corners or brake harshly by monitoring the sensors in their smartphones.

The software, part of an updated version of Uber's app for drivers that is rolling out to dozens of cities during a test phase this week, could help the company's more than one million drivers by giving them more feedback when a customer rates them poorly.

But the use of such technology could raise new concerns about driver privacy and questions about how far Uber can legally reach into the lives of workers it classifies as independent contractors, rather than employees.

Starting Friday, drivers in at least nine U.S. cities including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago will be shown a summary of how smooth their driving was for each trip, including separate scores for acceleration and braking and a map highlighting the physical location of each incident. Any time drivers go over the speed limit, Uber will alert them within its app in real time.

In different groups of test cities, Uber will also use the gyroscope inside drivers' phones to detect when they move or touch the device to, for example, compose a text while driving.

Uber said the main purpose of collecting this data is to help drivers become better at their jobs and give them feedback that is more detailed than the five-star ratings customers leave for each driver. Uber said that during its tests, drivers won't face any negative consequences for low scores on the new safety measures, but that is an option the company may explore in the future.

In November, the company began monitoring driver behavior in limited tests in Houston.

Mikeal Gibson, an Uber driver in San Francisco, said he thinks the safety reports could help him understand whether a bad rating was related to his driving or something else.

"I've heard that the only reason [customers] give people less stars is for poor driving and bad behavior, so delineating those two would be useful," said Mr. Gibson, who is 30 years old.

The data may also create an objective record that could help protect drivers from being penalized for unfounded customer complaints. In California, Massachusetts and Seattle, Uber has recently begun testing a new peer-review appeal process to let drivers be the judge of other drivers who say they have been deactivated unfairly.

Technology to track the safety of drivers in commercial fleets has existed for decades, primarily in the trucking industry, in which vehicles contain a box that records movements such as braking and speeding.

This field of technology, known as telematics, may finally be on the verge of widespread adoption due partly to smartphones, ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft, and a range of startups extolling the benefits of driver tracking. They include Automatic, a small device which plugs into any car and helps coach new drivers and track expenses; Zubie, a similar device that helps lower insurance rates; and Zendrive Inc., a San Francisco startup that helps dozens of companies monitor fleets of drivers by assigning each one a score.

Proponents of telematics say the benefits outweigh any concerns about privacy. Uber, which in 2014 audited its privacy practices after they triggered a congressional inquiry, said that all drivers consent to the company using their smartphones to track them when they agree to its terms of service.

Uber's driver contract states the company "may monitor, track and share with third parties driver's geolocation" for safety and security. It doesn't specifically mention GPS technology or other phone sensors such as accelerometers or gyroscopes.

Other pitfalls could arise from relying too much to on a technology that is still relatively unproven. Uber's top U.S. rival, Lyft Inc., has held discussions with telematics-technology providers but decided the software was still too early in its development to roll out to its thousands of drivers, Chris Lambert, the company's chief technology officer, said in an interview in January.

"There is a lot of work to be done to make the technology perfect in terms of identifying the events and determining what accurately leads to safer drivers," Mr. Lambert said at the time.

Lyft executives were concerned drivers wouldn't trust this technology because of the potential for false positives and false negatives. For example, a driver who is new to a city and drives too slowly could be rewarded, while someone who swerves to save the life of an animal could be punished.

Source: The Wall Street Journal