Uber announced Wednesday the launch of a new pilot program allowing female riders to request female drivers, marking the first time the option will be available in the United States.
The “Women Preferences” feature will roll out in the coming weeks in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Detroit. There is no announced timeline for a nationwide expansion.
According to Uber, the feature is being introduced in response to feedback from female users who expressed a desire to be paired with female drivers.
“Across the US, women riders and drivers have told us they want the option to be matched with other women on trips,” the company explained in a press release. “We’ve heard them—and now we’re introducing new ways to give them even more control over how they ride and drive.”
“For the first time in the US, we’re launching Women Preferences—features designed to give women riders and drivers more choice, more confidence, and more flexibility when they use Uber,” Uber added.
The feature is not guaranteed to match every request with a female driver, but women can toggle the preference in the app to increase their likelihood of being matched. Similarly, female drivers will be able to indicate they prefer trips with women riders.
“Of course, riders wanted the same choice. But making this work reliably—not just symbolically—required thoughtful design,” Uber explained. “Most drivers are men, so we’ve worked to ensure this feature was truly usable in different places around the world. We tested, listened, and refined it in markets like Germany and France, adapting the feature to real-world rider and driver behaviors. As a result, in a first for the industry, we’re able to launch more reliable features that offer women riders multiple ways to be matched with a woman driver.”
Uber already offers a similar option in about 40 other countries. The move also mirrors Lyft’s rollout of its “Women+ Connect” program, which launched nationwide last year.
