网约车巨头Uber即将推出一项新的安全功能，允许女性乘客和女性司机进行匹配。该功能将在洛杉矶、旧金山和底特律等地率先试点。此举旨在提升女性用户的出行安全感，应对她们在夜间或独自乘车时可能遇到的顾虑。女性乘客可以在应用中选择“女性司机”选项，而女性司机也可以选择匹配女性乘客。Uber此前已在沙特阿拉伯成功推广了类似功能，并表示将在全球40个国家扩展。尽管Uber的性侵犯和不端行为报告率有所下降，但新功能有望进一步增强用户在出行过程中的掌控感和舒适度，以应对可能出现的尴尬或不适体验。

🚗 Uber正试点一项新功能，允许女性乘客选择匹配女性司机，旨在提升女性用户的出行安全感和舒适度。该功能将在洛杉矶、旧金山和底特律率先推出。

👩‍💼 女性乘客在请求乘车时，可以选择“女性司机”选项，或在应用设置中将偏好设定为匹配女性司机。女性司机（占Uber司机总数的20%）也能选择匹配女性乘客。

🌍 此功能是对2019年在沙特阿拉伯推出的女性乘客偏好功能的延续，Uber表示已将其扩展到40个国家。这表明Uber正在积极回应用户对更安全出行体验的需求。

⚖️ 尽管Uber的性侵犯和不端行为报告率已有所下降，但新功能旨在解决可能出现的尴尬或不适体验，让用户在出行中有更多的掌控权，特别是在夜间或独自乘车的情况下。

🤝 Uber表示，在推出此功能前与LGBTQ+组织进行了沟通，并认为目前将此功能扩展到非二元性别群体“并非最恰当的服务方式”。

Ride-hailing company Uber is releasing a new feature that matches female drivers and riders.Pilots will begin in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Detroit in the coming weeks, Uber said.The new safety feature follows the success of female rider preferences in Saudi Arabia in 2019.

I take Uber rides at all hours of day and night, and there have been times when I've had second thoughts about my safety as a woman riding alone. I know I'm not the only one who's felt that way.

Fortunately, Uber seems to be taking note of the plight of women who have places to be. Camiel Irving, Uber's vice president of operations in the US and Canada, wrote on its website on Wednesday that the company will soon release a new safety feature that can connect female riders and drivers if they so choose.

Female riders will see an option called "Women Drivers" when they request trips on demand or book ahead. They can also set a preference to be matched with female drivers in their app settings. Female drivers — who comprised 20% of Uber drivers in 2023 — will also be able to request female passengers by toggling on the "Women Rider Preference" on their app.

Uber said that pilots will begin in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Detroit in the next few weeks.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Irving told Bloomberg that cities with a larger number of female drivers will see the feature sooner.

The option will be offered to drivers based on the gender listed on their license, and to riders based on the name and gender specified in the app, Bloomberg reported.

In 2023, competitor Lyft launched Women+ Connect, a feature that matches women and nonbinary drivers with other women and nonbinary riders.

Uber's feature is designed only for those who identify as women and have identifiable female names on the Uber app, Irving told Bloomberg. Irving said the company has had "a couple of conversations" with LGBTQ+ organizations and concluded that offering the feature to the nonbinary population "is not quite the right way to serve" them right now.

Uber first introduced female rider preferences in Saudi Arabia in 2019, following the country's decision to lift its ban on women driving. Since then, Uber said it's expanded the safety feature to 40 countries.

Uber's rates of sexual assault and misconduct cases have steadily dropped. The company's latest safety report notes 2,717 reports of sexual assault and misconduct in 2021 and 2022 — about 0.0001% of total trips taken in that two-year period — down from 0.0002% in 2019 and 2020, and 0.0003% in 2017 and 2018.

But there's a wide gray area between assault and a perfectly uneventful Uber ride. Awkward, uncomfortable, or strange experiences also occur, and the company's latest feature could give both riders and drivers more control over these situations.

"Across the US, women riders and drivers have told us they want the option to be matched with other women on trips," Uber said in a statement on its website. "We've heard them — and now we're introducing new ways to give them even more control over how they ride and drive."

I, for one, will try this out.