Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The app would judge a person's drunkenness based on how they type, walk and hold their phone 
 
 Taxi app company Uber has applied for a patent to use artificial intelligence to determine how drunk potential passengers might be. 
 
 The app used to summon rides could also feed other information to the driver, including a passenger's location, how accurately they are typing and even the angle they are holding their phone at. 
 
 It could help drivers who do not want to pick up inebriated riders. 
 
 But critics said it could also be used to identify vulnerable passengers. 
 
 According to the application to the US patent office, the system would spot "uncharacteristic user activity". 
 
 Uber does not have the best track record when it comes to collecting data. 
 
 In 2014 it was revealed the company used a software program known as God View to monitor real-time locations of customers and drivers. 
 
 That, coupled with a data breach that exposed personal data about more than 100,000 Uber drivers, made the company introduce tough measures to protect the privacy of drivers and customers. 
 
 Uber's co-founder Travis Kalanick resigned in June 2017 over allegations of sexual harassment at the scandal-hit company. 
 
 CNN reported that more than 100 Uber drivers in the US had been accused of sexually assaulting or abusing passengers in the past four years, with 31 drivers convicted of crimes including false imprisonment and rape. 
 
 Critics expressed concern that an app that could predict user behaviour could be used by drivers wishing to prey on vulnerable passengers. 
 
 In a statement, Uber said: "We are always exploring ways that our technology can help improve the Uber experience for riders and drivers. 
 
 "We file patent applications on many ideas, but not all of them actually become products or features." ||||| 
 
 Uber has filed a patent application to develop technology that can help determine whether or not a rider is drunk. (Toby Melville/Reuters) 
 
 Ever struggled to hold a phone steady while ordering an Uber? 
 
 What about plugging typos into a pickup or drop-off address? 
 
 Those are some of the flags Uber could one day use to predict whether its riders have had too much to drink. 
 
 Uber has a pending application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the technology that would help the ride-hailing giant tell drunk riders from sober ones. The idea is in its early stages, and the company has no immediate plans to start using the technology as described in the application. 
 
 But as with other uses of artificial intelligence, the technology also raises questions of how it would actually work, and how Uber could use and store data on the health and lifestyle choices of its users. Some privacy experts caution that the technology could misfire and discriminate against certain passengers, including with those physical disabilities. And they worry that the technology could deter riders who are drunk from using the service — and risk getting behind the wheel. 
 
 “We are always exploring ways that our technology can help improve the Uber experience for riders and drivers,” said Jodi Page, an Uber spokesperson. “We file patent applications on many ideas, but not all of them actually become products or features.” 
 
 Uber’s patent application, which was initially filed in December 2016, says that when riders request a car, the system collects information about the rider’s activity and includes that data in the ride request. To predict a rider’s state, the system compares data from that ride request to past ones. Past trip information may be used to “identify how the user activity of the current trip request deviates from previous (or ‘normal’) behavior for that user,” the application says. 
 
 For example, the system may track how many typos appear in a new ride request, or the angle at which the rider holds a phone when hailing an Uber. 
 
 Based on how the system interprets that behavior, it may adjust how it arranges a match with a driver, the application said. 
 
 “Some examples of trip variations include matching the user with only certain [drivers], alerting a [driver] about the user’s possible unusual state, and modifying pickup or drop-off locations to areas that are well lit and easy to access,” the application said. 
 
 The application also notes that “when the likelihood is comparatively very high” that a rider is acting out of the ordinary, that rider may not be matched with any driver, or may only be matched with drivers “with experience or training with users having an unusual state.” And when the likelihood is comparatively low, the system may match riders “normally.” 
 
 It’s still unclear how the patent, if approved, would be applied, and whether Uber would make use of it. But the patent application alone raised questions of its potential shortcomings and dangers. 
 
 John Simpson, director of the Privacy Project at the nonprofit Consumer Watchdog, said use of the technology could damage Uber’s business model, given that many riders rely on the service after drinking and when they know it would be unsafe to drive. 
 
 Simpson said he worried that the technology wouldn’t be able to differentiate drunkenness from other reasons a rider could have an unsteady hand. For example, a rider who has Parkinson’s or a hand tremor might be interpreted by the app as being drunk. 
 
 “My big, serious concern is it seems to be there are a whole host of other conditions that might come across as if a person were intoxicated when they weren’t at all, and might need an Uber because they’re physically handicapped,” Simpson said. 
 
 Jeff Chester, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Digital Democracy, said he worried that riders who depend on the service for their transportation needs could shy away from it knowing that their drinking habits and health data were being collected. 
 
 And he worried how the system would discriminate against people based on their age or race, as well as how frequently they request rides from certain locations and at what time of the day or night. 
 
 The technology would be unique in identifying drunkenness in passengers as opposed to drivers, noted J.T. Griffin, chief government affairs officer of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Griffin said that one of the best measures against drunk driving is expanding the options for how to get people home safely. 
 
 But as for whether riders who have been drinking might be less inclined to use the service as a result, “that is something that the public will have to decide,” Griffin said. “And Uber will have to be very careful in how they collect and what they plan on doing with that data.” 
 
 Read more: 
 
 America’s gig economy is smaller now than before Uber existed, official data show 
 
 Uber is working to win you back. (But it also needs you to pay more.) 
 
 I was team #DeleteUber. Can Uber’s new boss change my mind?
– Keeping your drunkenness a secret from your Uber driver might be impossible in a future world, no matter how much silence emanates from the backseat. A patent application shows that Uber may be interested in trying to figure out whether potential passengers are drunk by analyzing everything from typos in the ride request to whether the phone was swaying, reports the Guardian. While it's only theoretical at this point, the idea is that certain behavior would trigger a reaction from Uber if it differs from behavior during past ride requests, reports the Washington Post. For example, a specially trained driver might arrive to transport a drunk passenger and make sure the person is dropped off in a safe spot. The app might also keep a drunk passenger from pooling with other riders. All this "sounds helpful," but "poses questions about the potential for data like this to be abused," writes Arwa Mahdawi in the Guardian. Would drunk passengers have to pay more than others? And given that many of the abuse allegations lodged against Uber drivers have come from passengers who were drunk at the time, the system could theoretically put people at risk. Experts also fear the technology could single out people with disabilities or keep users from hailing a ride when drunk or high, per the Post. But though the patent was filed in December 2016, there's no plan to put the idea into practice yet. "We are always exploring ways that our technology can help improve the Uber experience" and "file patent applications on many ideas, but not all of them actually become products or features," Uber says, per the BBC.