Uber announces feature allowing women to select female preference for riders, drivers

Uber announced a "Women's Preferences" on Wednesday that would allow women riders and drivers in the U.S. to only be connected with other women for their trips through the ride-sharing service.

The pilot program will begin in the next few weeks in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Detroit. The company does not yet have a launch date for other U.S. cities.

"Across the US, women riders and drivers have told us they want the option to be matched with other women on trips," the company said in a press release. "We've heard them—and now we’re introducing new ways to give them even more control over how they ride and drive."

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"For the first time in the US, we’re launching Women Preferences—features designed to give women riders and drivers more choice, more confidence, and more flexibility when they use Uber," the company added.

The new feature comes as Uber has recorded thousands of incidents of sexual assaults over the years and has sought to introduce measures to make traveling safer.

The company previously launched the women rider preference feature in other countries, allowing women in around 40 countries to request female riders. The program first launched in Saudi Arabia in 2019 after a law passed that granted women the right to drive, and it subsequently expanded after receiving an "overwhelmingly positive" response.

"Of course, riders wanted the same choice," Uber said. "But making this work reliably—not just symbolically—required thoughtful design. Most drivers are men, so we’ve worked to ensure this feature was truly usable in different places around the world. 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."

Women riders must verify their own gender on the app to access the new feature. When selecting a ride, they will see "Women Drivers" as an on-demand option along with existing options such as UberXL, Uber Black, Comfort and Wait & Save. Riders can also reserve trips in advance with women drivers.

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Additionally, women drivers will have the option to request trips with women riders.

Although it is not guaranteed, the company said riders and drivers can toggle on the women preference in their app settings to increase the chances of being matched with another woman.

Lyft, another ride-share service, introduced the "Women+ Connect" option —similar to Uber's new program — in September 2023 before it expanded nationwide in February 2024.