As it continues fighting thousands of cases in which assault victims have sought to blame the company for the behavior of its drivers, Uber is making an option available nationwide to request a female driver.
An option to match riders with women drivers that is already available in six other countries on the Uber app will become available across the US in a new update, the company says. The move comes as Uber continues to face legal trouble over thousands of assault cases involving its (mostly male) drivers.
A report last year suggested that Uber received a new assault report on its app every eight minutes between 2017 and 2022, and Bloomberg now reports that the company continues trying to resolve thousands of these cases.
Around the time of that report last summer, Uber launched a pilot program in San Francisco, LA, and Detroit that made the woman-driver request option available to riders. That program was later expanded to include two dozen cities, and is now being made permanent and expanded to include the major markets of New York, Philadelphia, and DC.
"Since our first pilots last summer, we’ve heard just how much that choice matters — from feeling more comfortable in the back seat to more confident behind the wheel," Uber said in a statement. "This International Women’s Day, we’re taking the next step for women in the US and around the world."
The option allows women to set a preference in their Uber app to always be matched with a female driver when possible, and it allows them to schedule rides in advance with a guaranteed female driver. When requesting on-demand rides in the moment, the app will provide the option for seeking a female driver, and if the wait time is significantly longer, it will provide the option to find a faster ride as well.
The company notes in a blog post that the woman-matching option began on the driver-side app in 2019 in Saudi Arabia, after women there were granted the right to drive for the first time. The driver-side option to be matched with female customers has now been made available in 40 countries — and here in the US, it's an option for Uber's fleet of female drivers, who represent about one in five Uber drivers overall.
The rider-side option to be matched with a woman driver is now available in seven countries: the US, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Brazil, and Spain.
Below is a promo video about the new option from Uber. In it, Bay Area Uber driver Rejeanne says, "Now I just feel like I'm unstoppable, you know? I'm in control of my car, and I can make other women feel just the best that they can getting from point A to point B."
Previously: Report: Uber Has Sexual Assaults Reported on the Platform Every Eight Minutes
