Flock Uber drivers plate-scanning plan cited 350,000 devices
A Flock presentation cited 350,000 devices in a proposed Nexar partnership, but Flock says the plan was never executed.
By Sofia Marchetti · Columnist
· 3 min read
Flock Uber drivers plate scanning was a proposed expansion, not an operating program, according to reporting by 404 Media. A presentation attributed to Flock Safety cited a Nexar partnership involving “350k Uber/Lyft and other delivery service devices,” but Flock told the outlet it never executed that partnership.
For investors and customers watching how surveillance technology can expand, the distinction is central. The document points to an effort to put license-plate collection on vehicles already traveling through communities, while the reporting does not establish a live deployment involving rideshare or delivery vehicles.
404 Media reported that the presentation was prepared by Flock for the Georgia Office of the Attorney General last August. Jason Hunyar, a Dunwoody, Georgia, resident, obtained it through a public-records request and shared it with the publication.
What did Flock’s Uber driver plate-scanning plan propose?
The slide described a proposed relationship with Nexar, a dashcam company, alongside Flock’s existing network of commercial businesses and homeowners associations in Georgia. Its reference to 350,000 devices covered Uber, Lyft and other delivery-service devices, rather than 350,000 confirmed Uber drivers.
According to 404 Media, the proposed arrangement would have used dashcams in rideshare and delivery drivers’ vehicles to capture license-plate information as those vehicles moved through their routes. Nexar sells dashcams with front, cabin and rear views, and markets its products to rideshare drivers as well as commuters, long-distance drivers and casual drivers.
That would have changed the collection model from fixed hardware to mobile hardware. Flock’s usual automatic license plate reader, or ALPR, cameras are stationary and record the license plate and characteristics including the color, make and brand of passing vehicles, 404 Media reported. A Flock representative told PBS NewsHour that its plate-reader product identifies a vehicle’s make, model, color, plate and plate state, along with timestamps and locations.
What is confirmed, and what remains unknown?
The presentation is evidence that Flock pitched the concept, but Flock said the Nexar partnership was not executed. The available reporting does not say why it did not proceed, what contractual terms may have been considered, or what data access and retention rules would have applied under the proposal.
It was also unclear whether Uber, Lyft or drivers working for those apps would have known about the contemplated data collection, according to 404 Media. Uber, Lyft and Nexar did not respond to the outlet’s requests for comment.
The episode leaves a narrower but significant takeaway: a presentation can reveal a company’s intended route to scale without proving that the system was built. In this case, the cited 350,000-device figure belongs to an unexecuted proposed Nexar partnership, not a confirmed nationwide fleet of Uber drivers scanning plates.
This story draws on original reporting from Decrypt.
