Uber introduced a “Girls's Preferences” on Wednesday that might permit ladies riders and drivers within the US to solely be related with different ladies for his or her journeys by the ride-sharing service.
The pilot program will start within the subsequent few weeks in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Detroit.
The corporate doesn't but have a launch date for different US cities.
“Throughout the US, ladies riders and drivers have informed us they need the choice to be matched with different ladies on journeys,” the corporate mentioned in a press launch. “We've heard them—and now we're introducing new methods to provide them much more management over how they journey and drive.”
“For the primary time within the US, we're launching Girls Preferences—options designed to provide ladies riders and drivers extra selection, extra confidence, and extra flexibility after they use Uber,” the corporate added.
The brand new function comes as Uber has recorded hundreds of incidents of sexual assaults through the years and has sought to introduce measures to make touring safer.
The corporate beforehand launched the ladies rider choice function in different nations, permitting ladies in round 40 nations to request feminine riders.
This system first launched in Saudi Arabia in 2019 after a legislation handed that granted ladies the proper to drive, and it subsequently expanded after receiving an “overwhelmingly optimistic” response.
“After all, riders wished the identical selection,” Uber mentioned. “However making this work reliably—not simply symbolically—required considerate design. Most drivers are males, so we've labored to make sure this function was really usable in other places around the globe. We examined, listened, and refined it in markets like Germany and France, adapting the function to real-world rider and driver behaviors. Consequently, in a primary for the trade, we're capable of launch extra dependable options that provide ladies riders a number of methods to be matched with a girl driver.”
Girls riders should confirm their very own gender on the app to entry the brand new function.
When deciding on a journey, they may see “Girls Drivers” as an on-demand possibility together with present choices equivalent to UberXL, Uber Black, Consolation and Wait & Save.
Riders may reserve journeys prematurely with ladies drivers.
Moreover, ladies drivers could have the choice to request journeys with ladies riders.
Though it's not assured, the corporate mentioned riders and drivers can toggle on the ladies choice of their app settings to extend the probabilities of being matched with one other lady.
Lyft, one other ride-share service, launched the “Girls+ Join” possibility —just like Uber's new program — in September 2023 earlier than it expanded nationwide in February 2024.
