Uber's AI Knows When You're Inebriated
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Drunk passengers can be occupational hazards for drivers.
Uber may soon be able to tell if you've had a few too many beers.
The ride-hailing company has applied for a patent on a machine learning system that can identify when passengers are drunk, CNN reports.
The system can monitor and catalog your daily behavior when you interact with the Uber app and determine what is normal for you. Then, when a user acts erratic or just different from their day-to-day behavior, the app can determine if someone is impaired.
This isn't just how you act directly with the app either, the proposed system would even be able to learn how you walk and the angle at which you hold your phone.
So what will Uber do with this information?
The company hopes to send a status update about your potentially altered mental state to drivers before they pick you up so that they can prepare for what might come next
Don't expect this system to be implemented this weekend. For now, it's just a patent. Uber drivers will still have to use their own powers of deductive reasoning to figure out if a passenger is going to be drunk and difficult.