Grab is officially launching its AudioProtect feature as a new transportation safety measure in conjunction with International Women’s Day. The feature was first rolled out as a pilot programme in limited areas back in September, but now it seems that it is ready to be released nationwide to all users.
AudioProtect is a feature that records the audio of your entire ride on both your device and the driver’s, but it requires both parties to have enabled it on their respective apps before it can start recording automatically. It will start recording when the ride starts and stops once the ride is complete.
Recorded audio files are encrypted and are inaccessible to both you and the driver. They will only be sent to Grab in the case where a safety-related incident is reported and if not, they will be automatically deleted after five days, which is reduced from the trial’s 10-day period.
According to its FAQ, the audio recording will be paused when a device receives a phone call and will only resume after the call ends, but the recording will still continue on the device that is not being used to make a call. The feature is available on all rides except for GrabShare and GrabHitch, and, obviously, it won’t work if you don’t have enough storage on your phone.
AudioProtect is turned off by default but to enable it, you can go into the safety settings in your Grab account settings, as well as add emergency contacts. You can also disable it at any time.
Grab says that AudioProtect will be rolling out in phases, so keep your app updated if you want to try out the feature. Other new features that have recently been introduced by the company include quiet rides as well as a Saver food delivery option.
(Source: Grab Press Release)
