Uber is creating a number of methods to do that. First, simply by opening the app, ladies clients will see a brand new choice to request a lady driver. In the event that they’re reserving a experience prematurely, they’ll additionally have the ability to choose a lady driver. And so they can alter their settings to point a choice for a lady driver in all circumstances. Choosing that choice might enhance wait occasions, as most Uber drivers are males. If time is of the essence, ladies can all the time go for one other experience with a sooner pickup.
The function is just not unique to riders. Ladies drivers can even alter their settings to request ladies passengers, together with throughout peak incomes intervals like evenings. In the event that they wish to obtain journey requests from all riders, they will flip the choice off at any time. The brand new function will roll out first in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Detroit over the subsequent few weeks.
As a security measure, Uber requires that each riders and drivers confirm their id earlier than utilizing the app. Nonetheless, if a lady thinks she’s being paired with one other girl, both rider or driver, and a person reveals up, Uber recommends they cancel the experience and report the incident to the corporate.
This isn’t the primary time Uber is permitting ladies to pair up by the app. The corporate first launched its Ladies Rider Choice function in Saudi Arabia in 2019, a 12 months after the nation lifted its ban on ladies driving. Since then the function has been launched in 40 nations.
The problem is to make the service work “reliably,” even whereas coping with gender-based preferences, mentioned Camiel Irving, Uber’s VP of Operations for the US and Canada.
“Most drivers are males, so we’ve labored to make sure this function was actually usable in other places all over the world,” Irving mentioned in a put up. “We examined, listened, and refined it in markets like Germany and France, adapting the function to real-world rider and driver behaviors. In consequence, in a primary for the trade, we’re in a position to launch extra dependable options that supply ladies riders a number of methods to be matched with a lady driver.”
Since 2019, Uber has launched security studies that disclose the variety of reported incidents of sexual harassment and assaults that happen in its automobiles. Its final report, launched in 2024 and protecting the years 2021–22, mentioned there have been 2,717 incidents of “severe sexual assault and misconduct,” a lower of twenty-two p.c from the earlier report.
It’s an issue that has been plaguing the trade for years. In a 2022 function in The Verge, dozens of ladies rideshare drivers spoke about their experiences with harassment and assault.
Many mentioned they’ve taken to carrying pepper spray or different defensive weapons of their automobiles in defiance of the app firm’s insurance policies banning such gadgets. The entire drivers mentioned that they don’t really feel fully protected or supported by the businesses on whose platforms they conduct their enterprise.
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