Women and non-binary Uber riders will soon be able to request women drivers
Uber’s ‘Women Preferences’ feature will allow women and non-binary riders to request women drivers. (Getty Images)
Uber’s 'Women Preferences' feature will allow women and non-binary riders to request women drivers. (Getty Images)
Uber is working to introduce a filter that will allow women and non-binary riders to request women drivers.
The “Women Preferences” feature, which many women and non-binary people have been pressuring the company to introduce for some time, will firstly arrive in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit “in the next few weeks”.
Uber’s press release added: “Across the US, women riders and drivers have told us they want the option to be matched with other women on trips. We’ve heard them, and now we’re introducing new ways to give them even more control over how they ride and drive.”
The transport company added that the new features are “designed to give women riders and drivers more choice, more confidence, and more flexibility when they use Uber.
The feature will give Uber users the ability to request on-demand women-only drivers, reserve pre-booked trips with women drivers, and set a preference for women drivers to increase the chance of being matched with one. Female drivers will also be able to request women riders.
Uber first launched the Women Rider Preference in Saudi Arabia in 2019 after a landmark law granted women the right to drive. The feature was then rolled out to 40 more countries.
‘We listened’
The press release adds: “Of course, riders wanted the same choice. 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.”
In 2022, Uber launched an anti-discrimination button on the platform to help LGBTQ+ people feel safe during journeys.
Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.
