Uber is rolling out a Women Drivers option across the United States that is meant to increase the odds that women riders are paired with women drivers. The setting appears as an on demand booking choice, can be saved in app preferences, and is available for advance reservations through Uber Reserve. The timing is hard to miss: the expansion comes as the company faces thousands of passenger sexual assault lawsuits and a recent bellwether jury verdict that awarded $8.5 million to a survivor.
How the option works
According to Uber Newsroom, riders requesting trips on demand will now see a "Women Drivers" option, can prebook trips with women drivers via Uber Reserve, or can set a standing preference in the app to boost the likelihood of a match. Women drivers get a companion "Women Rider Preference" toggle in their driver app so they can receive more requests from women riders. Uber says it first piloted the feature in several U.S. cities before widening the rollout.
Company says it is responding to rider demand
Uber told Travel + Leisure that rider demand drove the product, pointing to internal figures that about 75 percent of women riders support having an option to match with women drivers. The company is also pitching the feature as a way to attract and retain more women behind the wheel by giving them more control over the trips they accept.
Legal backdrop and the bellwether verdict
The expansion lands while thousands of passenger sexual assault lawsuits are bundled in a federal multidistrict litigation, and shortly after an Arizona federal jury awarded $8.5 million in the first federal bellwether trial, according to the AP. Legal analysts say the early verdict and the crowded MDL docket are already influencing settlement talks and may shape how future juries think about liability for incidents that happen on the platform.
Critics call it a partial fix
Some civil rights and business critics argue the feature addresses a symptom rather than the underlying problems. Male drivers have filed lawsuits alleging the program discriminates and hurts their earnings, per Time. Survivor advocates and reporters note the large volume of reported incidents on the app, including reporting that found roughly 400,000 trip level reports of sexual assault or misconduct between 2017 and 2022, as evidence that app tweaks alone will not fix the issue, according to The New York Times.
What riders in New York, Philadelphia and D.C. should know
Bloomberg notes that markets such as New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. are among the places getting the expanded option and that riders can either prebook trips with women drivers or set the preference in their app settings. Riders in areas with relatively few women drivers should be prepared for longer waits when using the Women Drivers option, so advance booking through Reserve may be the most reliable way to secure a ride with a woman driver.
Whether the Women Drivers option moves the needle on safety will likely depend on whether changes to the app are paired with the deeper operational and screening reforms that lawyers and advocates have been pushing for. Expect more developments as courts continue to test legal theories and as Uber extends the feature to additional markets.
