Uber may soon be able to identify drunk passengers
What's the story
If you're an Uber driver, drunk people aren't fun to deal with. Even for passengers, hitching a ride in an inebriated state can be dangerous, and there have been several allegations against drivers for sexual assault. These incidents, however, heavily tarnish a company's image, and thus Uber is patenting a technology to detect a user's "state", so it can refuse rides to drunk passengers.
Details
Details of the patent application filed by Uber
On June 7, the US Patent and Trademark Office published an application filed by Uber in December 2016, seeking to patent a system that uses machine learning to detect an Uber user's "state". Interestingly, Uber's application never outright mentions detecting 'intoxication' as the prime purpose behind the technology, but says it intends to identify "unusual" behavior by users.
Determining factors
How will Uber determine a user's state?
Uber's proposed technology will use several factors to predict a user's state. This includes speed and accuracy of typing on the Uber app, angle at which a user holds the phone, the user's walking speed, location, and time of the day and day of the week. Looking at the determining factors, one can take a good guess at what the tech is for.
Unusual behavior
The system will detect anomalies by comparing a user's history
With data on the aforementioned factors, Uber's system, using machine learning, will compare it to the passenger's history with Uber to find anomalies in behavior. For instance, if you're not prone to too many typos, but commit one too many on a particular day, Uber's system will detect your "unusual behavior", and adjust how it responds to your requests for a ride.
Responses
How the Uber app might respond upon detecting anomalous behavior
These responses might come in many forms. For instance, upon detecting "unusual" behavior, the app might give a heads up to drivers, match that passenger with drivers who have experience in dealing with "unusual" states etc. It can also outright deny the passenger a ride. However, since ferrying drunk passengers is part of Uber's business, it might not resort to denying rides frequently.