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Uber to Offer Women Drivers Option in U.S. For First Time

The ride-sharing giant started the scheme in Saudi Arabia.

Uber will launch an option to let women riders get female drivers in the U.S., the company said Wednesday. The program aims to give women “more choice, more control, and more comfort when they ride and drive,” Camiel Irving, Uber’s VP of operations in U.S. and Canada, said. The pilot is set to launch first in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit. The new toggle feature in the app allows women riders to set their preferences to match with women drivers, although it does not offer a guaranteed female driver. Only one in five Uber drivers are women. The ride-sharing giant also plans to roll out the feature to let women drivers express a preference for female passengers. Uber first experimented with the gender-preference settings in Saudi Arabia in 2019, after a long-standing ban on women drivers was lifted. The feature is live in 40 additional countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, France, India, Mexico and Poland. “When we make our platform better for women, we make it better for everyone,” Irving said.