Uber will allow female passengers and drivers to choose to ride with a woman in the U.S.

Uber announced this Wednesday that it will allow female drivers and passengers to choose to ride only with women in the United States.

The company will launch a pilot program of this initiative over the coming weeks in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, and Michigan.

“For the first time in the U.S., we’re launching ‘Women Rider Preferences,’ designed to give female drivers and passengers more options, more confidence, and more flexibility when using Uber,” the company said in a statement, noting that this program already exists in 40 countries.

It explained that when requesting a ride, women will have an option called “Women Drivers.”

The company also highlighted that, for better planning and safety, female passengers will be able to book a ride with a woman driver in advance and set a preference for a woman driver in their app settings.

It added that “while it’s not guaranteed, activating the ‘Women’ preference increases the chances of being matched with a female driver.”

The company will also give its female drivers the ability to choose this preference—even during peak hours—meaning “more opportunities to earn on their own terms, with flexibility and confidence.”

To use the feature, users simply need to activate the “Women Rider Preferences” option in the app’s settings, and they can turn it off whenever they wish to receive ride requests from all users.

In the statement, Uber recalled that this initiative for women was launched in Saudi Arabia in 2019, following a “historic” law that granted women the right to drive, and emphasized that it has now expanded to 40 countries, with over 100 million rides completed.