In today's incredibly creepy news, Uber has revealed that its technology can detect when your mobile phone battery is running low. 

The car hailing app, which was debuted in 2010 in San Francisco and which has now expanded into 400 cities globally, is a catch-all solution for both low cost fares and easing the difficulties of finding a taxi late at night.

As a business model, Uber's has been a money making masterpiece.

The rise of Uber hasn't been plain sailing though, with plenty of horror stories springing up around the world, both about inappropriate behaviour from barely licenced drivers and also about the misdealings of the company itself in handling criticism.

The most recent news - that the Uber app is designed to detect when your battery is running low - is cause for serious misgivings for a lot of people.

Although Uber claim that the app uses this information to go into energy saving mode, there are many who think it might be used as an indicator of when customers are more likely to accept surge charges, fearing that a dead battery will leave them stranded if they don't.

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Keith Chen, Uber's head of economic research has strenuously denied this, stating: 'We absolutely don't use that to kind of like push you a higher surge price, but it's an interesting kind of psychological fact of human behaviour.'

One of the more recent criticisms faced by the taxi company is that it has raised its surge prices in times of crisis. 

Might one deem a woman stranded alone at night with no battery a time of crisis too?

What are your thoughts on this latest Uber development? Let us know on Twitter @ELLEUK!

Headshot of Natasha Bird
Natasha Bird
Former Digital Executive Editor

Natasha Bird is the Former Executive Editor (Digital) of ELLE.