“Can I request a man in case I want an emotionally stable drive that can parallel park?”

Uber has simply introduced that it’ll roll out a function permitting feminine passengers and drivers to request being matched with different girls in choose cities, and social media is already up in arms about it.

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The information dropped Wednesday morning, with a press launch referring to the brand new function as “Women Preferences.” On the passenger facet, Uber will record Women Preferences as an choice alongside the several types of Ubers (UberX, UberXL, and so forth) out there and supply the estimated distance and worth. Riders will even be capable of pre-book with girls or set an total desire for feminine drivers, though Uber notes it isn’t a assure.

Female drivers could have the chance to toggle on a “Women Rider Preference” choice that can solely provide them girls passengers.

These choices will initially roll out in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Detroit to begin. Uber says it plans to develop this system sooner or later.

Safety and priority

Uber already has packages like this in place in a variety of different international locations, relationship again to its first effort to match feminine drivers and feminine passengers in Saudi Arabia again in 2019. After implementing it in over 40 international locations and making changes based mostly on suggestions and utilization, Uber says it’s able to deliver the choice to the United States.

But they’re truly not the primary main rideshare firm to take action. Lyft already rolled out an identical choice known as Women+ Connect in 2023 in choose cities. It permits feminine and nonbinary drivers to toggle on a desire that prioritizes matching them with feminine and nonbinary passengers. It has since been expanded to all U.S. cities by which Lyft operates.

Both firms word security issues amongst drivers and passengers as a main cause for implementing these choices. Uber’s 2021-2022 security report exhibits that the variety of critical sexual assault reviews made throughout rides have dropped since 2017, however that ladies had been the victims 89% of the time.

Men are upset at Uber’s new function

When Lyft rolled out Women+ Connect, male drivers instantly began complaining that it was unfair to them, that they’d lose out on rides, and insisted that ladies don’t really want a function like this. The identical factor has already been occurring with Uber’s announcement, together with open misogyny, transphobia, and racism.

A previous heated Reddit debate over Lyft’s implementation of the identical function had girls declaring precisely why one thing like this may be so useful.

At least one particular person on X had the sense to ask for the subsequent function Uber desperately must implement.

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