Uber began rolling out nationwide a feature that lets women riders request trips with women drivers—along with drivers seeking women riders—after a pilot program aimed at safety concerns. Starting Monday, the option, called “Women Drivers,” appears in the Uber app and is intended to match participating riders and drivers with other women for trips across the U.S.
Uber said passengers can opt for another ride if waiting for a women driver takes too long, and it also offers a way for female users to set a preference for a female driver in app settings. Uber said that preference would increase the chances of matching with a woman driver but would not guarantee it. The company also said teen account users can request women drivers.
The nationwide launch comes even as litigation continues over Uber’s policy. AP reported that the rollout is proceeding despite an ongoing class action lawsuit in California that was filed by Uber drivers in November. The suit argues the policy violates California’s Unruh Act, which prohibits sex discrimination by business enterprises, and it contends Uber’s approach “reinforces the gender stereotype that men are more dangerous than women.”
Uber disputes the lawsuit’s premise and said it is seeking to compel arbitration based on an agreement drivers signed when they joined the app. In a motion filed in the case, Uber disputed that the feature violates the Unruh Act, saying it “serves a strong and recognized public policy interest in enhancing safety.” The company also pointed to its view that safety-focused design choices can be justified as serving the public interest.
Uber and Lyft have both faced reports and legal actions involving sexual assaults involving drivers and passengers. In February, a federal jury found Uber legally responsible in a 2023 case of sexual assault and ordered the company to pay $8.5 million to an Arizona woman who said she was raped by one of its drivers. Uber has said that because its drivers are contractors, it is not liable for drivers’ misconduct, while also describing steps it says it has taken to improve safety.
Uber told AP that about one-fifth of its U.S. drivers are women, though the share varies by city. The company said it hopes its women preference option will attract more female drivers to its platform, and it launched a media campaign featuring star athletes including Alex Morgan and Jordan Chiles to promote the feature. Uber also said it teamed up with Lyft in 2021 to create a database of drivers ousted following complaints over sexual assault and other crimes.
The company said it piloted the “Women Preferences” feature last summer in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Detroit before expanding it to 26 U.S. cities in November. Uber said it first launched a version of the feature in Saudi Arabia in 2019 after the country’s landmark law granting women the right to drive, and it now offers similar options in 40 other countries, including Canada and Mexico.
Drivers and legal advocates described differing views of whether the approach will work at scale. Melody Flores, a single mother who drives for Uber overnight in San Francisco, said she uses the “Women Preference” option and also participates in ads promoting the feature. Flores, 41, told AP that she previously frequently dealt with drunken male passengers who made lewd comments, and that she now mostly picks up women leaving late shifts or parties. She said the feature has made her “more comfortable driving into neighborhoods that once made her nervous,” and she said, “Especially when you work overnight, it’s been nice to have that feature.”
Sergio Avedian, who drives for Uber and Lyft and is a senior contributor to The RideShare Guy, said he supports the concept but doubts its effectiveness in practice, pointing to how few women drivers are available, particularly during overnight hours. Avedian said, “Are you going to sit there in front of the bar and wait an extra 20 minutes to get matched to a woman?” and added that for riders, “it’s mostly about how fast can you get here and how much is it?”
Uber also addressed questions around who can use the option. The company said its matching feature is not open to nonbinary riders or drivers, and it said it relies on the gender listed on a driver’s license for drivers, meaning some transgender women may be able to use the feature depending on whether their state allows them to change their gender identification on documents. In response to questions from AP, Uber said it “consulted with various women’s safety organizations and LGBTQ+ groups while designing this feature and determined that it is not the best way to serve non-binary riders or drivers.”
Ann Olivarius, co-founder of the law firm McAllister Olivarius who specializes in sex discrimination and sexual harassment cases, said she believes Uber and Lyft have a strong case against discrimination litigation because the features address an urgent business need to protect clients. She told AP, “Lowering a client’s risk of rape — is that a business necessity? I would argue that it is a business necessity,” framing the issue as a safety-focused justification for the policy.
In a separate dispute, Lyft is facing a discrimination lawsuit tied to a similar offering that it introduced nationwide in 2024. The Uber policy’s rollout now places the dispute squarely in the middle of a broader debate over how to balance safety goals with anti-discrimination requirements while ride-hailing companies expand features nationally.