Uber adding women-only ride option in pilot cities
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Uber is rolling out new features in the U.S. to give women more control over how they ride and drive, the ride-hailing company said Wednesday.
Why it matters: Safety and comfort have long been top concerns for women who use rideshare services, both as riders and drivers.
- Uber cited 2,717 cases of sexual assault and misconduct between 2021 and 2022 in its latest U.S. safety report, which was published in August 2024.
Driving the news: Uber said Wednesday it plans to start a pilot of the "Women Preferences" tool in the next few weeks in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit.
- The feature is designed to give riders and drivers the option to be matched with other women for trips.
- "We hope to be able to expand to more cities," Camiel Irving, vice president of operations for Uber, told Axios.
Catch up quick: Uber first introduced a version of this feature in Saudi Arabia in 2019, shortly after women gained the legal right to drive.
- Since then, it has expanded to 40 countries and powered more than 100 million trips globally.
- Uber's move mirrors a similar offering by Lyft, which took its "Women+ Connect" program nationwide in February 2024. Lyft's program lets women and nonbinary riders and drivers opt in to being paired together.
How it works: Women riders will be able to:
- Choose "Women Drivers" when requesting a ride on demand.
- Reserve rides in advance specifically with women drivers.
- Set a permanent preference for women drivers in their account settings.
- Women drivers can toggle on a "Women Rider Preference" in the app. This allows them to receive requests only from women — even during high-demand hours like evenings.
Yes, but: Women drivers make up about one in five Uber drivers in the U.S.
- Though the majority of drivers are men, Irving said there are a lot of women on the platform.
- "When you request a ride for a woman, we want to make sure that you're going to have a wait time that is what you would expect for Uber generally," Irving said.
- Irving said there's a "fallback option" for riders who don't want to wait, or if the wait is too long, to do a broader request.
Editor's note: This story's headline was updated.
