For Safety Reasons, Your Uber Driver Needs To Take A Selfie Before Picking You Up
The new security feature will be utilised to prevent fraud and protects drivers’ accounts from being compromised.
By John Lim — 28 Mar 2017, 12:17 PM
Uber Malaysia announced yesterday that it will require drivers to snap selfies before signing on to the platform and accepting ride requests
First introduced in the US back in September 2016, the security feature - called "Real-Time ID Check" - is now being implemented in Malaysia.
Uber Malaysia said in a blog post that this is a step forward to ensure the safety of drivers and riders.
Uber said drivers will be randomly selected to submit a selfie for verification, failing which their accounts could be suspended momentarily
"This prevents fraud and protects drivers’ accounts from being compromised. It also protects riders by building another layer of accountability into the app to ensure the right person is behind the wheel," Uber wrote.
Powered by Microsoft’s Cognitive Services, the selfie is then used to compare to the profile photo that's been saved in the driver's account
"We then use Microsoft’s Cognitive Services to instantly compare this photo to the one corresponding to the account on file.
If the two photos don’t match, the account is temporarily blocked while we look into the situation," said Uber’s chief security officer Joe Sullivan as quoted by The Verge.
During the pilot of Real-Time ID Check over the past few months in the US, the majority of mismatches were due to unclear profile photos. However, more than 99 percent of drivers were ultimately verified.
"Given that verification takes only a few seconds to complete, this feature proactively and efficiently builds more security into the app," Uber said.