Putting your teenager in an Uber alone can be a little nerve-racking, even when you can follow their entire journey on a map. Uber thinks actually seeing what’s happening inside the car could offer parents a little more peace of mind.
The company is introducing live video streaming for teen rides in the US, allowing parents and guardians to watch their child’s trip from their own Uber account. The feature is already available in nine markets, including Atlanta, Cleveland, and Rhode Island, and Uber says it will expand nationwide over the coming weeks. The idea is pretty simple: instead of installing another camera inside the vehicle, Uber uses the driver’s phone to provide the video feed.
Parents can check in without making a call
When a teen starts a ride and live video is available, the parent or guardian connected to their account will receive a notification. They can then choose whether they actually want to open the stream. There won’t be any secret viewing, either. If a parent starts watching, both the driver and the teenager will be notified that the live feed is active. Access is also restricted to parents or guardians whose accounts are linked to the teen’s Uber account, so other Uber users can’t tune in.
It builds on Uber’s existing teen accounts, which first arrived in the US in 2023 and have since expanded to more than 50 countries. The accounts are designed to give teenagers some independence while still providing parents with additional safety and monitoring tools. Live video takes that idea a step further. A map can tell you where the car is, but a video feed can give you a much better idea of what is actually happening during the ride.
But there are some privacy questions
There are a few catches worth knowing about. If someone else is riding in the car with the teenager, they can also appear on the live feed, and Uber doesn’t provide those passengers with a way to opt out of being shown. Uber says the video is encrypted and disappears once the ride is over. After that point, the driver, teenager, parent, or guardian can no longer access the footage.
What’s less clear is exactly what kind of encryption Uber is using. The company hasn’t confirmed whether the stream is end-to-end encrypted, which would prevent Uber itself from accessing it. That distinction matters for a feature that is essentially sending live footage from inside someone’s car. Still, for parents already using Uber’s teen accounts, live video could offer something location tracking alone can’t: the ability to quickly look inside the ride and make sure everything is going as expected.