Flock's Leaked Plan: 350K Uber & Lyft Cars as Plate Scanners
The short version: A leaked Flock Safety deck reportedly proposed turning 350,000 Uber, Lyft, and delivery cars' Nexar dashcams into a roving plate-reader network feeding police — Flock says it was never launched.
Our Take
Credit to PickBits for surfacing this one. Whether or not Flock ever flipped the switch, the fact that a pitch like this existed tells you everything about where this industry's head is at. Fixed cameras bolted to street signs were apparently just the opening move — the real ambition is a mobile, invisible dragnet riding around in cars that millions of people climb into every day without a second thought.
Think about what that means in practice: your Uber driver, your DoorDash delivery guy, your Lyft home from the bar — any of them could have been quietly logging every license plate they passed, with that data piped straight to law enforcement, and neither the driver nor the passenger would ever know. No sign on the dash, no checkbox in the app, no way to opt out. That's the pattern with this whole industry — expand the surveillance footprint first, explain it later, and only 'never executed' something after a leak forces the issue.
This is exactly why mapping where these cameras already live matters, because the fixed network is the baseline this stuff keeps trying to build on top of. Check out our camera map to see what's already watching your area, and hit take action if you want to push back before 'pilot program' becomes 'standard feature.'
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of PickBits, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.