Uber launches women-only ride option in U.S. to boost safety and comfort for riders

Uber announces plans for a program that allows women passengers and drivers to request female drivers and passengers.

Hopping into a stranger’s car is already a weird concept when you think about it. Add the potential of being flirted with, harassed, or just straight-up creeped out by a driver, and it becomes an all-too-familiar uncomfortable experience for women. 

To ease some of that anxiety and address long-standing safety concerns, Uber is rolling out a new feature that lets women riders choose women drivers. The update, designed to give women “more choice, more confidence, and more flexibility,” also enables women drivers to opt into being paired with women riders through a new toggle in their app settings.

“Across the U.S., women riders and drivers have told us they want the option to be matched with other women on trips,” Uber said in a press release. 

With only 1 in 5 Uber drivers identifying as women, the company says riders may face longer wait times, but they’ll have options. Riders can choose to wait, book a ride with a woman driver in advance, or go with any available driver who might not match their preference.

“That is what we expect to learn more about during this pilot,” an Uber representative said. “Riders may experience longer wait times if women drivers are unavailable or further away. If so, they can choose to wait, reserve a ride with a woman driver for a later time, or choose a ride with any available driver that may not match their preference.” 

This is not the first time Uber has launched a women-only rideshare option. In 2019, the rideshare company introduced the “women rider preference” in Saudi Arabia after the country’s women gained the right to drive. Since then, the brand says the feature has expanded to 40 countries but was unavailable in the U.S. until now. 

Uber’s women’s preference feature comes two years after Lyft introduced “Women+ Connect” a feature that matches women and nonbinary drivers with more women and nonbinary riders.

“Most drivers are men, so we’ve worked to ensure this feature was truly usable in different places around the world,” Uber explained. “We tested, listened, and refined it in markets like Germany and France, adapting the feature to real-world rider and driver behaviors. 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.”

Uber will pilot its “women preference” feature in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Detroit in the next few weeks.