Uber’s Algorithms Could Spot Crimes in Progress. But Do We Want Them To?
The news out of Kalamazoo, Mich., this past weekend was grim: Authorities say Jason Brian Dalton, an Uber driver, shot and killed at least six people in different locations in the space of a few hours. Chillingly, Dalton apparently took several fares in between his alleged attacks. The case raises difficult questions about Uber’s responsibility toward passengers and the public. For example, could the company have prevented Dalton’s crimes? And if so, how should Uber and regulators respond? More stringent background checks are one option, but they can be discriminatory. They also quickly lead to diminishing returns, since they measure past behavior, and it is incredibly difficult, even based on current behavior, to predict who will become a mass shooter. There is one thing Uber probably could do using its existing technology and the massive amounts of data it already collects about its drivers and passengers: The company could spot crimes in progress by their drivers as they take place. But while that approach might be more effective than implementing more background checks (and more allegedly misleading “safety …
