Uber announced a new feature Wednesday that pairs women drivers and riders, in its latest move to address safety on the ride-hailing platform.
The new tool, which the platform will begin piloting next month in the U.S., allows women passengers to match with women drivers when booking or pre-booking rides, and create a preference in their app settings. Women drivers can also choose to drive women.
“It’s about giving women more choice, more control, and more comfort when they ride and drive,” Camiel Irving, Uber’s vice president of U.S. and Canada operations, said in a release.
The company said the rider’s preference isn’t guaranteed but the feature increases the chances women will be paired in the app.
Uber will pilot the program in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit. The company also said it tested the feature in countries such as France, Germany and Argentina.
This isn’t Uber’s first foray into gender preferences on its platform.
In 2019, Uber rolled out a women rider preference feature for female drivers in Saudi Arabia after women won the right to drive in 2018. That offering later expanded to about 40 countries. A survey from the company in 2015 found that about a fifth of its U.S. drivers were women.
Over the years, ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft have faced safety concerns and questions over the roles these platforms have played in various sexual assault and harassment incidents.
Uber has rolled out several features in recent years to improve safety on the platform, including teen accounts and rider and pin verification.
Competitor Lyft launched an option in late 2023 that pairs women and nonbinary drivers and riders.
