Uber will allow women riders to request women drivers in San Francisco pilot
Women drivers and passenger can select one another on Uber
Uber launching a new feature allowing women passengers and drivers to connect
SAN FRANCISCO - Uber is getting ready to roll out a new safety feature that will allow women riders to request women drivers through the app as part of a pilot program in select cities, including San Francisco.
Women Preferences
What we know:
The ride-share company calls the program: Women Preferences. The program will also be introduced in Los Angeles and Detroit over the next few weeks, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
The company said women riders and drivers have told them that they would like the option to be matched with other women on their trips. This feature is to give women more control over how they ride and drive, Uber's statement read.
Most Uber drivers are men, the company said.
And the feature isn't exactly new. It was introduced in Saudi Arabia in 2019 after women were granted the right to drive by law. The feature has since expanded to 40 countries.
Women riders will be able to request an on-demand trip through the app. Then they will see the "Women Drivers" option. Uber says if the wait is long, they can opt for another ride with a faster pickup. They also have the option to use the feature by reserving in advance. Women Preferences can also be set as a preference in the app's settings. This setting increases the rider's chance of being matched with a woman driver, but Uber says it's not a guarantee.
Likewise, Uber's women drivers will have the ability to toggle over to "Women Rider Preference" in their app settings.
Riders react
What they're saying:
In San Francisco, numerous women who use the Uber app for rides, said they like this new option and are likely to make it their preference.
"I would say that I’ve had a few experiences if you were, where I’ve had some weird drivers. But, for the most part, I definitely would if I had the option to pick a woman, I would," said Grace Vennelli.
"I like the option, especially when I’m by myself and especially if it’s late at night, if I’m going home in the dark. I really like the option," said Amy Ryan a rideshare passenger.
Others said it doesn't make a difference to them whether the driver is male or female.
"I don’t worry about things, and so I never think about whether there’s going to be a crazy guy driving or not, so it would be fine, but I probably wouldn’t use the service," said Margo, a rideshare passenger who did not give a last name.
KTVU also spoke to a Lyft driver who said she exclusively drives for Lyft because that ride-hailing app already has a women-pairing feature in place. Lyft implemented their Women+ Connect feature in late 2023.
"One of the things I do when I pick up female passengers is if they know about it, because even though I’ve only been doing this a couple months, I still come across women who do not realize it’s an option," said Nancy Marquez, a Lyft driver.
Sexual assault lawsuit
The backstory:
Earlier this month, USA Today reported a federal judge in San Francisco is overseeing more than 2,300 lawsuits against Uber, seeking to hold the company liable to passengers who claim they were sexually assaulted or harassed by drivers.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer refused to dismiss product liability claims based on the app not having the gender-pairing feature, the news outlet reported.
In the summer of 2022, Uber was hit with a lawsuit on behalf of more than 500 women who alleged they were sexually assaulted by company drivers. The complaint was filed in San Francisco Superior Court. That lawsuit came on the heels of a 2020 report released by the company that declared 998 sexual assaults, of which 141 were rapes.
The company looked at data and found that sexual assault reports were more likely to go through the police than through the app.
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