In an effort to make its services safer, Uber is preparing to launch a new rideshare feature specifically for women drivers and riders.
Videos by Suggest
The company announced on Wednesday that it will pilot launch the Women’s Preferences feature next month.. This feature is designed to give women riders and drivers “more choice, more confidence, and more flexibility.”
The pilots will begin in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit.
For female riders, this feature will enable them to select rides with female drivers. They will be able to request on-demand through the Women Drivers option.
Uber noted that if the wait time is longer than anticipated for Women Drivers, female riders can always opt for another ride with a faster pickup.
Female riders can also use the feature to reserve in advance and set a preference.
“While it’s not guaranteed, turning on the Women preference increases your chance of being matched with a woman driver,” Uber pointed out.
Women drivers can use the feature to request trips with women riders. To do this, women drivers can toggle on the “Women Rider Preference” in their app settings. They still have the option to receive trip requests from all drivers.
Uber First Launched Women Rider Preference in Saudi Arabia Six Years Ago
Uber previously introduced Women Rider Preference in Saudi Arabia in 2019. The feature was launched after the country established a law granting women the right to drive.
Uber noted that since then, the feature has expanded to 40 countries and has facilitated over 100 million trips.
“Of course, riders wanted the same choice. But making this work reliably—not just symbolically—required thoughtful design,” the company stated. “Most drivers are men, so we’ve worked to ensure this feature was truly usable in different places around the world. We tested, listened, and refined it in markets like Germany and France, adapting the feature to real-world rider and driver behaviors.”
Uber then added, “As a result, in a first for the industry, we’re able to launch more reliable features that offer women riders multiple ways to be matched with a woman driver.”