As if ridesharing apps haven't been detrimental enough to other road users—your Uber driver’s dashcam almost became a roving government snitch.
According to a pitch presentation obtained via a public records request and reported by 404 Media, in a bid to become ever more popular with the general public, Flock drew up plans to co-opt roughly 350,000 rideshare and delivery vehicles into mobile license plate readers.
The scheme relied on an alleged partnership with dashcam maker Nexar, whose cameras are already strapped to the windshields of hundreds of thousands of Uber, Lyft, and other gig drivers.
Instead of relying solely on fixed cameras mounted on street poles—which have increasingly become targets for vandalism by the disgruntled—Flock's grand vision involved turning traffic into a rolling dragnet. Every time a gig driver pulled up to a red light or dropped off a dinner order, their Nexar camera would passively log the license plate, make, model, and color of every surrounding vehicle, feeding that data directly into Flock’s regional surveillance network.
The pitch document, originally presented to the Georgia Office of the Attorney General, touted the prospective Nexar deal alongside hundreds of commercial and HOA clients already on Flock’s platform. What remains entirely unclear is whether Uber, Lyft, or the drivers themselves would have ever been notified that their personal vehicles were functioning as rolling automatic license plate readers.
Flock insists the partnership with Nexar was never actually executed. But the fact that the company actively marketed a network of 350,000 unwitting civilian spotters to state officials reveals exactly where commercial surveillance is heading. Similar schemes are already trickling into the public sector; bus-safety firm BusPatrol recently outlined plans to turn school bus stop-arm cameras into ALPR systems accessible by law enforcement.
Whether rideshare companies actively shut the deal down or simply haven’t found the right price tag yet remains an open question, but one thing is clear: everyone is a person of interest now.
via Autobuzz Today
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