Women will soon have more options when it comes to who they match with on ride-sharing trips with Uber thanks to the company's newly designed "Women Preferences" features.
ABC News' Becky Worley made an exclusive announcement on "Good Morning America" Wednesday from Uber, that the new features -- which are designed to give women using the app more choices, confidence, and flexibility -- will be available for the first time in the U.S. for Uber.
"When we make our platform better for women, we make it better for everyone," Camiel Irving, Uber's vice president of operations, U.S. and Canada, said in a statement. "After hearing from women riders and drivers around the world, it was clear: Many want the option to match with other women. That's why we're proud to pilot Women Preferences in the U.S. for the first time ... It's about giving women more choice, more control, and more comfort when they ride and drive."
The pilot program will roll out in three markets over the next few weeks: Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit.
How it works for riders:
Request on-demand: When requesting a trip on-demand, women riders will see an option called Women Drivers. If the wait time is longer than anticipated, they can always opt for another ride with a faster pickup.
Reserve in advance: For more planning and certainty, women riders can use the Reserve function to pre-book trips with women drivers.
Set a preference: Riders can set a preference for a woman driver in their app settings. While it's not guaranteed, turning on the Women preference increases your chances of being matched with a woman driver.
How it works for drivers:
Uber reported that about 1 in 5 of its U.S. drivers are women, though numbers may vary by city.
Soon, women drivers will have the option to request trips with fellow female riders, including during peak earning hours like evenings.
Change settings: Women drivers can simply toggle on the "Women Rider Preference" under settings in the Uber Driver app.
Toggle off when needed: If a female driver wants to receive trip requests from all riders, they can turn the preference off at any time.
Uber first launched a Women Rider Preference feature for drivers in Saudi Arabia in 2019 to an overwhelmingly positive response, after a landmark law granted women the right to drive.
Since the first launch, Uber has expanded the feature to 40 additional countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, France, India, Mexico and Poland.
