A new Uber feature that pairs women riders with women drivers is gaining traction south of the border and raising questions about whether Canada could be next.<\/p>\n
The ride\u2011hailing company introduced a setting this week in the United States that allows women passengers to request women drivers, a move Uber says is designed to address long\u2011standing concerns about safety during rides.<\/p>\n
In Calgary, the idea is already resonating with some women.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would feel 10 times more safer,\u201d said Dyana, who told CityNews that stepping into a car with a male stranger can feel \u201creally unsettling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nowshin, another Calgary woman, said the feature would make a real difference for people who work late. <\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I feel not really secure\u2026 if I find a woman, it feels a bit secure,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Uber says the option, called \u2018Women Drivers\u2019, is part of a broader effort to respond to feedback from women who use the platform, both as riders and as drivers.<\/p>\n
The feature allows women to request a female driver through an option on the app. Passengers can opt for another ride if the wait for a woman is too long, and they can also reserve a trip with a woman driver in advance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have women preferences for drivers in Canada,\u201d said Uber Canada spokesperson Keerthana Rang. \u201cDrivers who are women can indicate a preference for picking up women riders. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd really this is about us listening to feedback from women. Women drivers have been asking for this, and I know women riders are asking for this as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The women\u2011only matching feature first launched in Saudi Arabia in 2019 and now exists in more than 40 countries. <\/p>\n
Its U.S. expansion, however, has already hit legal turbulence as a class\u2011action lawsuit in California argues the program discriminates against male drivers by limiting their access to certain trips.<\/p>\n
As for Canada, Uber hasn\u2019t committed to a timeline, or even confirmed whether the feature will arrive here at all. But the company says the U.S. rollout will help shape what comes next.<\/p>\n
With files from The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new Uber feature that pairs women riders with women drivers is gaining traction south of the border…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-527835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}