A recently-published patent application from Uber has revealed that the ride-sharing company is planning on using artificial intelligence to identify a passenger’s behavioral state, including being drunk, before being picked up. With this technology, Uber is hoping to better tailor its ride-sharing options for its ever-growing user base.
The patent, titled “Predicting user state using machine learning” describes a system that uses machine learning to study the usual behavior of Uber users. These behaviors include several factors, including location, the precision of users’ clicks on the app’s buttons, spelling accuracy when communicating with drivers, average walking speed, and how long it takes passengers to request for a ride. The usual time when users hail an Uber will also be included in the system.
According to Uber’s patent application:
“The user state model is trained to predict user state using past features in conjunction with previously-identified unusual user states. That is, the user state prediction module detects whether the user has input data in a way that is unusual for that particular user and/or in a way differing from normal user behavior that is similar to the differences for other users having unusual behavior.”
Thus, if an intoxicated user hails a ride while walking and typing clumsily, the ride-hailing company’s AI system would be able to make an assumption that the user is less than sober. Once the system detects that a user is likely drunk, it would “alter the parameters” of its service in order to match the passenger with drivers who have relevant experience and training. Based on the passenger’s state, Uber might also restrict a drunk user’s access to its shared ride services.
“the user may not be matched with any provider, or limited to providers with experience or training with users having an unusual state” reveals the patent application.
The patent is authored by members of Uber’s Trust & Safety Team, who are tasked with making the company’s service and products safer. Overall, the system stands to benefit both passengers and drivers, considering that intoxication has proven to be a problem for Uber so far. According to an investigation from CNN, at least 103 Uber drivers have been accused of abusing intoxicated passengers over the past four years. Uber drivers have also reported instances where they got assaulted by passengers who were drunk.
The use of AI systems is steadily gaining ground. In China alone, SenseTime, a company involved in mainstream smartphone applications such as AR filters, has been working with the Chinese government in developing AI solutions that are capable of matching footage from crime scenes to criminal database photos. After a funding round led by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba earlier this year, SenseTime’s total valuation rose to over $4.5 billion, making it one of the most valuable AI startups in the industry.
In the United States, AI is starting to get embraced by the US military, with self-driving vehicles and AI-powered weapons being in development. Just recently, Google saw protests from staff over the company’s participation in the Pentagon’s artificial intelligence initiative, Project Maven. According to reports, Google’s AI technology has been used to improve military drones’ image-processing capabilities, which has been helping the military fight threats in several regions such as the Middle East. Google, for its part, stated that its work with the Pentagon has been “mundane,” and that the technology it provided was limited only to non-offensive uses.
Tesla revealed a major new Cybercab detail in a guide it released for First Responders, showing new territory in its beliefs and intentions for the ride-hailing-focused vehicle that entered production in April.
The First Responders Guide is released to give fire departments, paramedics, and other emergency personnel the proper guidance on what to do in the event of an accident, entrapment, or other situation that would require immediate attention.
On one of the pages of the First Responders Guide, Tesla revealed a stark detail about the Cybercab, which could help personnel enter the vehicle more easily in case of an emergency.
Tesla Cybercab has one important piece that AI4 cars might need for FSD
It shows Tesla has no intention of releasing any Cybercab units that were initially proposed for ride-hailing services for the general public with any manual controls, meaning a steering wheel or pedals:
“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or acceleration and brake pedals.”
New official Cybercab documentation from Tesla:
“A Cybercab equipped with steering wheel, brake pedal, and an acceleration pedal is typically an engineering or test vehicle, and operates at SAE Level 2 autonomy. Cybercab is not typically equipped with a steering wheel or… https://t.co/P6ut1mZyzr pic.twitter.com/yq6skl9s2J
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 27, 2026
This is a major development for those who continue to believe Tesla planned to release the Cybercab with any sort of manual controls so that passengers could take over if needed. However, when Tesla started manufacturing production versions of the Cybercab in Giga Texas earlier this year, they were spotted without a steering wheel or pedals.
It essentially confirms the company has no intentions of bringing manual controls to the car’s production versions. Some have argued that the likelihood of Tesla having something
There still are some Cybercab units out there with a steering wheel and pedals, and as Tesla said, these cars are engineering or test vehicles, which have Safety Monitors on board to help the car out of a precarious situation or emergency.
Tesla released the Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite to owners of Hardware 3 or AI3 vehicles today, adding several new features to the vehicles that were once believed to be capable of unsupervised self-driving.
Now, Tesla has released this modified suite to older Tesla vehicles, adding plenty of new features and capabilities.
Here are the full release notes for the suite:
- Distilled the intelligence from HW4 V14 into HW3. This allows HW3 to directly learn how to handle scenarios using HW4 V14 as a guide. This process unlocks the improvements that have been made to HW4 including Reinforcement Learning (RL) and offline models for HW3.
- Improved both proactive and reactive responsiveness across a wide variety of categories including navigation handling, merges and forks, pedestrian interactions, traffic lights, and vehicle cut-in scenarios.
- Improved general comfort in nominal scenarios through fewer false slowdowns, smoother steering and more consistent lane centering.
- Introduced parking, unparking, and reversing capabilities.
- Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, or at the Curbside.
- Speed Profiles are now available at all times, to further customize driving style preference.
These improvements, according to Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, help distill the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of AI3.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ for older cars finally gets released
He added:
“It includes destination options and speed profiles on city roads, but more importantly significantly improved safety. We hope you’ll enjoy it, once the build ships wide.”
FSD v14 Lite is now rolling out to AI3 early-access customers. Based on the feedback, will rollout to more customers over the next few weeks.
This build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute config of AI3. It includes destination…
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 29, 2026
Tesla will continue to roll out the v14 Lite suite more widely in the coming weeks, the company said.
Tesla has finally released its Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite for older cars that equip the Hardware 3 or AI 3 chip, which have not been able to handle the newest versions of the company’s driver assistance software.
Tesla officially started releasing the v14 Lite suite to owners in the Early Access Program last night. The company’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, said that the rollout will continue over the next few weeks. The build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of an AI3 car.
🚨 Tesla is releasing v14 Lite for AI3 owners who are in early-access
This will give AI3 cars the ability to experience new FSD features like parking preferences. https://t.co/pp6Q5FOKoz pic.twitter.com/tqexMB8SVy
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 29, 2026
It also includes a variety of new features that were available to AI4 cars running v14, including:
- Start Self-Driving from Park
- Arrival and Parking Options
- Speed Profiles
The release is highly anticipated because those owners with AI3 vehicles were early adopters into the FSD platform and were promised that their cars would be capable of achieving Full Self-Driving.
However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk admitted during the company’s recent Q1 Earnings Call that these vehicles would not be capable of achieving unsupervised Full Self-Driving, which is what Tesla had originally said.
Owners were not pleased with this answer, or the idea that their commitment to buying the suite outright for thousands of dollars would not yield the ability to drive without operating the car. Tesla gave some solutions for this, including a discount on a new car, or an upgrade to an AI4 or AI5 self-driving computer and new, upgraded cameras.
Tesla owners do not seem pleased with these options, as they require giving the company more money.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that Tesla came through for owners here by releasing v14 Lite before the end of Q2, something it had promised owners during the previous Earnings Call. Tesla has had trouble keeping up with timelines, but this is a big achievement for the team.
Tesla reveals huge Cybercab detail in new guide for First Responders
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ Release Notes: new capabilities and features
