Uber is launching a women-only driver option for riders in the U.S.

Uber $UBER is rolling out a nationwide feature allowing women to choose to ride with a female driver. 

The program, called Women Preferences, is coming to major cities like New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. Uber said it decided to implement the preference choice after "women riders and drivers told us they wanted more control over how they ride and earn.”

Women Preferences began as a pilot program in Saudi Arabia in 2019, when women there gained the right to drive. "Over 230 million global trips later, Women Preferences is now available for drivers in over 40 countries, and for riders across 7 countries, including the U.S., Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Brazil, and Spain,” Uber said in a press release. It's a preference both women riders and drivers can set, although Uber said it can't guarantee people will be matched with a woman driver or rider.

The preference is also available for teens if parents feel safer sending their kids in an Uber driven by a woman.

The program follows a long history of passenger and driver lawsuits accusing Uber of failing to prevent harassment and assaults. In 2016, the company agreed to pay $28.5 million to passengers and adjust its marketing language that promised “safe rides” as part of a class-action lawsuit settlement affecting 25 million consumers. Despite claiming to provide “industry-leading background checks,” Uber had failed to check drivers against the national sex-offender registry or use fingerprint identification, according to the lawsuits.

In 2024, Uber implemented a slew of safety features aimed to make women more comfortable on its platform, including the ability to record audio in the app during your ride, live location sharing with friends and family, and a feature that detects if a ride ends early, stops unexpectedly, or goes off course.

—William Gavin contributed to this article.