Uber drivers might want to think twice about flooring it with a passenger in the car. The company has been tracking some rides in a pilot program to see if drivers are going too fast or braking too hard.
The goal of the program, the company said Tuesday in a blog post, is to get to the truth when a driver gets a low rating from a passenger.
"It might be that a driver is unhappy about an unruly rider," wrote Joe Sullivan, Uber's chief security officer. "Or a rider is worried that her driver was going too fast. Either way, we need to check what actually happened."
Related:Fired Taco Bell Exec in Uber Attack Suing Driver for $5 Million
The company can tell exactly how fast cars are traveling, thanks to GPS and gyrometer data from the smartphones that drivers have to carry around to use the Uber app.
"If a rider complains that a driver accelerated too fast and broke too hard, we can review that trip using data," Sullivan said. "If the feedback is accurate, then we can get in touch with the driver. And if it’s not, we could use the information to make sure a driver’s rating isn’t affected."
Uber told NBC News that it was testing whether the pilot program was effective before making any decisions about rolling it out across its entire network.
