“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.”

-- Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), Jurassic Park

A pilot test by Uber, using mobile phone positioning data to validate bad driver claims in Houston, is dividing the company and some drivers, who feel the test is a worrisome invasion.

Company officials say it's a helpful tool that makes everyone safer.

The technology is complex, but common, as Uber explained in a news release.

“Gyrometers in phones can measure small movements, while GPS and accelerometers show how often a vehicle starts and stops, as well as its overall speed,” wrote Joe Sullivan, Uber’s chief security officer. “If a rider complains that a driver accelerated too fast and (hit the brakes) too hard, we can review that trip using data. 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.”

Concerned drivers, and critics of Uber’s practices, call it spying.

“It’s frightening to think all the things they can get from my phone,” said one driver, who asked not to be identified.

For a number of factors, the latest being the testing, this driver said he was thinking of leaving Uber.

Uber representatives would not disclose how many drivers were part of the pilot, or say whether each driver was informed of the pilot. Normally, the information was only shared with drivers after Uber received a complaint and used the information to make a determination.

The same technology is deployed in Uber customers’ phones, and the same information being delivered to Uber so they know where to pick people up can justify driver behavior.

The tech, the company has argued, gives riders and drivers more security, even as the company pushes back against fingerprinting in some areas. Houston is the only major city In Texas that requires fingerprinting. Austin, meanwhile, is locked in a political struggle with Uber and Lyft – which left Houston because of the fingerprinting – over requiring Austin drivers to submit prints.

Theprogram in Houston, which specifically tracked braking and acceleration by drivers, is not the company’s only ongoing pilot test. The company is deploying BopIt toys in cars in Charlotte to see if the curious little baubles keep intoxicated passengers from bothering their driver.