Uber tries to make ride-pooling less awkward with Facebook data
Uber has filed a patent detailing a passenger analytics system for its UberPool service. The ride-sharing firm will ask UberPool users to connect their Facebook profiles with the app and share riders’ profiles with one another. The filing states that the company is trying to find a way to alleviate the awkwardness that can come with sharing a car with a stranger. Uber is also proposing an exclusive service where riders can request to share a lift with people they have links to.
Uber has filed a patent that might make its UberPool carsharing service slightly less creepy, by showing passengers friends or interests they have in common.

How Uber wants the friend feature to look. Uber/USPTO

Judging by the filing, Uber will ask you to connect your Facebook profile with its app when you request an UberPool. It will do the same for anyone you're about to share a ride with and if you have friends in common, Uber will let you know.

How Uber wants the feature to work. Uber/USPTO

Uber doesn't just want to look for mutual Facebook friends or friends of friends. It might also look for:

Whether you went to the same college

Whether you ever worked at the same company

Whether you grew up in the same place

Whether you were born in the same country as each other

Whether you have the same hobbies

According to the filing, the idea is to make sharing an UberPool with complete strangers less awkward. But it's possible knowing this much information about a stranger might make the service seem more, rather than less, creepy.

Uber's also proposing a kind of exclusive UberPool where riders can proactively request to share a car only with people who have common links.

The company also seems to want the increased social integration to run both ways.

The filing outlines an "Uber there" feature that could be embedded into an event invitation. For example, you could be looking at a Facebook invite to a friend's birthday at a bar, hit the embedded "Uber there" button, and share a ride there with friends of friends who may live nearby, all without leaving Facebook.

It's worth noting Uber has filed but not been granted the patent, meaning the data mining feature may never see the light of day.

If it does, all of this might make UberPool more palatable to anyone worried about sharing a car with strangers. At the end of last year, Uber had to issue rules for carsharing passengers, warning them not to flirt with or vomit on fellow riders.

Here's the patent in full.