Six years ago, Uber began a feature in Saudi Arabia that allows women’s drivers in a walk to seek to connect with female riders. Since then, the “Women Preferences” feature has been released in 40 countries, from Argentina and Brazil in Canada, India and Mexico.
In a few weeks, this feature will eventually reach the United States, the company said on Wednesday. Uber plans to try the feature in Detroit, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Women will be able to put a preference for a woman’s guide to the Uber application, increasing the chances of a race. After that, when a female rider asks for a trip, they will see a choice called “Drivers Women”. If the wait is greater than expected, the rider can choose another ride, according to Uber.
Women’s drivers can change their arrangements to “rider women’s preferences”. This setting can change if the driver wants to receive travel requests from all riders.
Ride-involved companies, such as Uber and Lyft, have struggled in ways of improving safety and attracting the wider set of users-so on the sides of the driver and the rider. But it wasn’t an easy way.
The safety of Ride-Hailing was a long-term issue, which has often been highlighted by supporters and regulators against companies such as Uber and Lyft. And while rarely, reports of sexual attacks and lethal attacks have only fueled these concerns.
Bery referenced 36 natural attacks deaths in 2021 and 2022, according to the latest US security report released last year. Uber noted that the natural deaths of attack had jumped in previous years. While the incidents were still a small fraction of 1.8 billion trips made in 2021 and 2022 in the US, Uptick prompted the company to launch a variety of security features, including verified confectionery and audio and video walks.
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Sexual attack incidents have been steadily declined since Uber began to report the data in 2017. Uber reported 5,981 sexual attacks from 2017 to 2018 and that number decreased by more than half to 2,717 in the period 2021 to 2022.
Meanwhile, Uber and Lyft have been looking for ways to attract more women’s drivers. Both companies have more male drivers than women – for example, about 1 in 5 Uber drivers in the US are women. The “Women Preferences” feature, designed to give both the rider and the driver some control, could help attract more users on both sides.
Uber was the first major on foot to begin the possibility of women’s preferences. However, opponent Lyft was the first to offer a female feature of the United States-its main market.
