Uber can finally roll out its much-promised women’s preferences algorithm by piloting it in the United States in the cities of Detroit, Los Angeles and San Francisco. This option will enable the female riders to request female drivers and the female drivers will have the option of only accepting female passengers. This business was pioneered in Saudi Arabia a few years back and is now present in 40 countries. It will provide American customers with an additional feature that is much more comfortable and with more choice, especially women who might feel unsafe at night or traveling otherwise alone.
The action provides a solution to the problem of ride-hailing that has been there for a long time which is safety. Both Uber have had to grapple in recent years regarding how they can facilitate more rider and driver safety. Although incidents are still minimal compared to the billions of people who travel, assaults and deaths involving sexual activities have been reported and pushed to the news pages raising concerns among people.
The safety report of Uber revealed 36 deaths brought about by physical assaults in the period between 2021 and 2022, an increase compared to the previous years. Although this is a very low percentage of the total journeys there has been an increment of extra safety measures such as audio and video recording and verified rider badges. Through this new feature, Uber expects to make their platform more inclusive and safer for women. It also assists in addressing the gender imbalance in drivers.
So, at the current time there are approximately 1:5 female workers in Uber in the U.S. This new feature can help to liberate even more women and motivate them to drive because they realize that they are more in control of who they pick up. Interestingly, Lyft became the first platform in the U.S to introduce a matching option for women, yet Uber is the first in the world to implement the concept. The fact that Uber is finally implementing it in its native market is a significant step in ride-hailing being more inclusive and safer.
Altogether, this update will not only be a technological feature but also a strong step on the way to solving real problems. It increases the number of choices and control given to women and makes the experience comfortable for both riders and drivers. This might be a game-changer in the future relationship that women would have with the ride-hailing services.
Six years ago, Uber launched a feature in Saudi Arabia that let women drivers on its ride-hailing app ask to be connected to female riders. Since then, the “women preferences” feature has rolled out to 40 countries, from Argentina and Brazil to Canada, India and Mexico.
