Uber Announces Women Preferences   

In a move aimed at increasing safety, comfort, and choice, Uber is rolling out a new set of app features in the United States that will allow women riders and drivers to choose to be matched with one another.

The feature, called Women Preferences, gives users more control over how they ride and drive on the Uber platform. It is set to launch in the coming weeks as a pilot program in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Detroit, with plans for wider expansion in the future.

For riders, the new option will allow women to request a trip specifically with a female driver, either through on-demand requests or by reserving a trip in advance. A toggle in app settings will also allow users to express a general preference for female drivers, though Uber notes this is not guaranteed due to availability. Riders will still be able to opt for the fastest available ride if wait times for a woman driver are too long.

Credit: Uber.

On the driver side, women will now have the ability to set a preference for female riders—something Uber says will be especially useful during high-demand periods like evenings, offering more flexible and confident earning opportunities. This setting can be turned on or off at any time, giving drivers control over who they match with while on the road.

The U.S. debut follows several years of testing and development overseas. Uber first introduced the concept in Saudi Arabia in 2019, shortly after women were granted the right to drive in the kingdom. The feature was well received and has since expanded to 40 countries, logging over 100 million trips globally.

Implementing such a feature in the U.S. presented unique challenges, including the reality that most Uber drivers are men. To address this, Uber says it spent years refining the service through pilot programs in international markets like Germany and France, gathering user feedback to ensure reliability, not just optics.

Unlike previous one-size-fits-all approaches, Women Preferences was designed to adapt to real-world rider and driver behavior, including balancing supply and demand in each city. According to Uber, the system uses dynamic matching to increase the likelihood of fulfilling requests while avoiding disruptions to platform availability.

Uber says the rollout will be supported by education efforts and partnerships aimed at increasing awareness and driver onboarding. The company also plans to continue evolving the service based on feedback from users as it evaluates expansion into more cities across the U.S.

The move comes as the rideshare industry faces growing calls to improve safety measures and better accommodate diverse user preferences. Uber’s new feature is positioned not just as a safety solution, but as a way to make the platform more inclusive and flexible—one that gives women greater agency over their experience, whether behind the wheel or in the back seat.