Uber launches women-only option across the US

Uber launched a feature on Monday to allow both female riders and drivers across the US to be matched with other women for trips, expanding a pilot program aimed at addressing concerns about the safety of its ride-hailing platform.The new feature is being rolled out nationwide despite an ongoing class action lawsuit against the policy in California, filed by Uber drivers who argue that it is discriminatory against men. Rival ride-hailing company Lyft is also facing a discrimination lawsuit over a similar offering that it introduced nationwide in 2024.The feature, announced in a blog post, allows women to request a female driver through an option on the app called “women drivers”. Passengers can opt for another ride if the wait for a woman is too long, and they can also reserve a trip with a female driver in advance. A third option allows female users to set a preference for a female driver in their app settings, which would increase the chances of being matched with a woman, though it would not guarantee it. Uber is also allowing its teen account users to request female drivers.Uber’s female drivers can set the app’s preferences to request trips with female riders, and they can turn off that preference at anytime.Uber, based in San Francisco, says about one-fifth of its drivers in the US are women, thought the ratio varies by city.Two California Uber drivers filed a class-action lawsuit against Uber in November, arguing that its women preferences feature violates California’s Unruh Act, which prohibits sex discrimination by business enterprises. The lawsuit charges that the feature gives its minority female drivers access to the entire pool of passengers, while leaving its majority male drivers to compete for a smaller pool of passengers. The lawsuit also argues that Uber’s policy “reinforces the gender stereotype that men are more dangerous than women”.Uber filed a motion to compel arbitration in the case, citing an agreement the plaintiffs signed when joining the app as drivers. In the motion, Uber disputed that its new feature violates the Unruh Act, saying it “serves a strong and recognized public policy interest in enhancing safety”.“This feature is a commonsense solution to a longstanding request from both women drivers and riders who told Uber they would feel more comfortable and safer if they could choose to ride with another woman,” the company said in the court filing.Two Lyft drivers have filed a similar lawsuit against the company for its “women+connect” feature, which allows women and non-binary riders to match with drivers of the same identification.Uber piloted the women preferences feature in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Detroit last summer and expanded it to 26 US cities in November. The company first launched a version of the feature in Saudi Arabia in 2019 after the country’s landmark law granting women the right to drive. It now offers similar options in 40 other countries, including Canada and Mexico.Both Uber and Lyft have for years faced criticism over their safety records, including thousands of reports of sexual assaults from passengers and drivers. In February, a federal jury found Uber to be legally responsible in a 2023 case of sexual assault, and the company was ordered to pay $8.5m to an Arizona woman who said she was raped by one of its drivers.Uber maintains that because its drivers are contractors and not employees, it’s not liable for their misconduct. But Uber says it has taken multiple steps to improve safety, including teaming up with Lyft in 2021 to create a database of drivers ousted from their ride-hailing services for complaints over sexual assault and other crimes.Uber says sexual assault reports have decreased over the years. According to reports from Uber, 5,981 incidents of sexual assault were reported in US rides between 2017 and 2018 – compared with 2,717 between 2021 and 2022 (the latest years with data available), which the platform says represented 0.0001% of total trips nationwide.