Responsibly collecting roadway data
Learn how Uber and our partners use video footage collected from vehicles operating on public roads to advance the development of safe autonomous vehicle technology.
What data Uber collects
For this research, outward-facing cameras are mounted on regular vehicles on public roads. The same cars may collect additional data using lidar, radar, and other outward-facing sensors.
The video footage Uber and our partners collect focuses on observing real-world roadway scenarios—such as the flow of traffic, cars, and pedestrians—as they naturally occur.
Advancing autonomous vehicle safety
Uber and our partners use this data to support research and development of safe self-driving technology. The footage helps:
Train AI systems
to better recognize and respond to complex traffic situations
Validate safety models
by testing them against real-world scenarios
Improve navigation
in challenging driving environments
Reduce accident risk
by enabling vehicles to handle unpredictable situations
Our commitment to privacy
Our cameras may collect your personal data, which we use to understand real-world driving patterns, support self-driving models, and improve autonomous vehicle safety for everyone on the road. Neither Uber nor our partners uses such data to identify, track, or profile individuals.
Frequently asked questions
How are you using this data?
Uber is working with partner companies to develop safe autonomous vehicle systems. Data about the locations, traffic patterns, and environments in which autonomous vehicles will be driving is essential to train these systems to navigate the world safely. We’re using the collected data to enable this training.
Are these autonomous vehicles?
No, these are standard vehicles outfitted with a suite of sensors (cameras, radar, lidar) to collect data. The vehicles always have a human driver, often performing real trips on the Uber Platform and collecting data from real trips—real pick-ups and drop offs, routes, and real-world unpredictability.
What are you doing to protect user privacy?
We take appropriate steps to protect the privacy and confidentiality of your data. These include encrypting the data collected by our cameras and sensors, tightly limiting internal access to such data, and storing the data for only as long as necessary to train and improve self-driving models.
What types of data are the vehicles collecting?
The sensors collect a mix of radar, lidar, and camera data, combined with location and time information. The video footage Uber and our partners collect focuses on observing real-world roadway scenarios—such as the flow of traffic, cars, and pedestrians—as they naturally occur.
Are you taking photos of people?
Externally facing sensors capture images from the vehicles’ near surroundings, which would include people when they are present. Uber does not use these images to identify or profile such people.
Who are you sharing this data with?
Uber is working with partner companies to help develop safe autonomous vehicles, and we will share this data with those partners.
Are you blurring the faces of people before sharing data?
Images of faces are necessary to train autonomous vehicle systems to recognize natural faces when they navigate streets. In order to create autonomous vehicle systems that can safely operate in environments with pedestrians, we do not blur faces in the training data.
Seeing unblurred footage lets perception models read the same fine-grain cues—for example, eye contact or a quick head turn—that human drivers rely on in naturalistic studies to infer a pedestrian’s crossing intent. Such signals would be missed if faces were blurred. Retaining raw data directly boosts intent-prediction fidelity and widens safety margins.
How do individuals exercise their rights under applicable privacy laws to access and delete their images?
Depending on where you’re located, you may have the right to request access to or deletion of the data captured in the recordings. Requests are subject to verification of your identity and our ability to identify the relevant recording. We may be unable to fulfill a request where we cannot reasonably verify your identity or locate the requested recording, or where an exception under applicable law applies. To submit a request, please use our Privacy Inquiry Form here.
Additional resources
Privacy notice for road video collection
This notice describes how Uber uses video footage collected from vehicles equipped with outward-facing cameras operating on public roads to support research and development of safe self-driving models in the field of autonomous mobility. This notice does not describe how Uber and our partners collect and use your data when you request or receive rides or deliveries (including by autonomous vehicles) through Uber’s apps or websites. Uber’s notice describing our collection and use of such data is available here.
Data controller
Uber Technologies, Inc. (“UTI”) is the controller of the personal data contained in the video recordings collected globally except for the data collected in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), UK, and Switzerland, where UTI and Uber B.V. are joint controllers of such data. UTI and Uber B.V. are collectively referred to as “Uber” in this notice.
Information collected
Uber uses video recordings collected from outward-facing cameras mounted on vehicles that may be conducting trips on the Uber platform. These recordings primarily focus on roadways and the driving environment but may incidentally capture data such as facial features and license plates. Uber may also use sensor data collected using lidar, radar, and other outward-facing sensors at the same time as these video recordings. This sensor data is not used to identify individuals.
Public roads and driving environments are filmed for the sole purpose of capturing traffic situations as they happen in reality. While the video recordings captured are not intended to personally identify individuals, such video recordings might still fall within the scope of data protection laws.
How we use the information collected
Uber and our partners use video recordings collected from public roads to support research and development in autonomous driving technology. This includes training and validating of AI-based perception systems to help autonomous vehicles better understand and safely navigate complex real-world environments. The recordings focus on capturing actual traffic situations as they naturally occur and are not used to identify pedestrians, drivers, or other individuals. High-quality traffic footage is critical to reducing the risk of accidents and improving traffic efficiency for all users and enhancing the development and overall performance of reliable autonomous driving systems.
Uber may also use the video recordings to investigate or defend Uber or its partners against claims and disputes, and to detect, investigate, and prevent fraud. The recordings may also be used for safety purposes and to help protect the rights, property, and security of Uber, its users, and partners. In addition, Uber may use the recordings to comply with laws, regulations, operating licenses, insurance requirements, and contractual obligations, and to respond to legal processes or lawful requests, including from law enforcement and regulatory authorities.
How we share the information collected
We share video recordings only with selected autonomous driving technologies partners who have agreed to use the data strictly for their own research and development required to power self-driving vehicles. This includes improving their self-driving systems’ accuracy at recognizing and reacting to external objects, such as other vehicles and pedestrians. These partners are contractually prohibited from using the video recordings to identify or profile any individuals whose data is captured in the video recordings. Please contact us if you’d like to learn more about Uber’s autonomous driving technologies partners.
We may also share the video recordings with our subsidiaries, affiliates, and service providers, including cloud storage providers. These recipients process the video recordings on our behalf and solely as necessary to allow us and our partners to achieve the purposes described in this notice.
Uber may share the video recordings if we believe it’s required by applicable law, regulation, operating license or agreement, legal process or governmental request, insurance policy, or where the disclosure is otherwise appropriate due to safety or similar concerns. This includes sharing data with law enforcement officials and other government authorities, insurance companies, or other third parties as necessary to enforce our terms and conditions, user agreements, or other policies; to protect Uber’s rights or property or the rights, safety, or property of others; or in the event of a claim or dispute. Uber will process all law enforcement requests in accordance with Uber’s Guidelines for United States Law Enforcement.
Data retention
Uber and our partners retain the video recordings only for as long as necessary for the purposes outlined in this notice or as otherwise required under applicable laws. We apply safeguards to limit access, protect the data from misuse, and securely delete the data when it’s no longer needed.
International data transfers
Uber operates and processes data globally. While Uber stores the video recordings collected in the United States exclusively on servers located in the United States, we may enable access to the data from other countries, in order to process the data or share the video recordings with our self-driving partners.
Uber is committed to protecting data against unauthorized access regardless of where it originates from or where, or by whom, it is processed. This includes implementing global measures to protect your data, such as:
- Securing data when it’s in transit, including through encryption, and at rest
- Mandating company-wide training regarding privacy and data security
- Implementing internal policies and procedures to limit access to, and use of, data
- Limiting government and law enforcement access to data, except where required by law; there are imminent threats to safety; or individuals have consented to the access
Your rights
Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have rights under applicable privacy laws to request access to—or deletion of—your data.
Requests are subject to verification of your identity and our ability to identify the relevant recording. We may be unable to fulfill a request where we cannot reasonably verify your identity or locate the requested recording, or where an exception under applicable law applies. To submit a request, please use our Privacy Inquiry Form available here. In addition, depending on your location, you may have the right to file a complaint relating to our handling of your data with the data protection authority in your country.
Contact us
If you have questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your data, contact us.
Update to this privacy notice
We may occasionally update this notice. We encourage you to periodically review this notice for the latest information on our privacy practices.
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