Florida Injury Lawyer Blawg
Uber announced Wednesday the launch of its new “Women Preferences” feature, allowing women drivers and riders to choose to be matched with other women for their drive.
“At Uber, we believe that when we make our platform better for women, we make it better for everyone,” officials with the ride-sharing platform said in a statement. “Across the US, women riders and drivers have told us they want the option to be matched with other women on trips. We’ve heard them — and now we’re introducing new ways to give them even more control over how they ride and drive.”
Uber is slated to launch pilot programs in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit within the next few weeks.
Riders can both request on-demand and reserve their female drivers in advance. While they cannot completely block out male drivers, female passengers can set a preference for women drivers, which would increase their chances of being matched with a woman driver.
Women drivers will have the option to request trips with women riders even at “Peak earning hours,” such as evenings. Uber officials said this will equal more opportunities for their women drivers to earn “on their terms.” The drivers will be able to select their women rider preference in the app’s settings and can simply switch back to accept all genders at any time.
The move, however, is not new. Lyft, another ride-hailing platform, launched a similar feature in 2023. Lyft’s feature matches women and nonbinary drivers with women and nonbinary riders. It is currently available throughout the United States.
Uber officials admit that most drivers are men — approximately 73% in the U.S. are men, however, recent data from Time Magazine shows that nearly one-third of new sign-ups are women. With the gender disparity in the number of drivers, Uber says it has “worked to ensure this feature was truly usable in different places around the world.”
“We tested, listened, and refined it in markets like Germany and France, adapting the feature to real-world rider and driver behaviors,” Uber officials said. “As a result, in a first for the industry, we’re able to launch more reliable features that offer women riders multiple ways to be matched with a woman driver.”
Leesfield & Partners
As a personal injury law firm that has represented countless victims of assaults, car crashes, and corporate negligence over nearly five decades, Leesfield & Partners applauds the intent behind Uber’s new “Women Preferences” feature. Giving women greater control over who they ride with, or who enters their car, is a long-overdue response to well-documented safety concerns. It also offers survivors of sexual abuse and violence, particularly those coping with PTSD, a new possibility: to use the app in a way they may never have previously felt safe doing.
Our skilled trial attorneys have witnessed countless instances where the very systems and authorities entrusted with protecting our clients’ safety and well-being have failed them. In 49 years of personal injury practice, our attorneys have routinely represented victims and survivors of sexual assault with the compassion and knowledge of the law necessary to secure the best possible outcome in every case.
Our firm has achieved numerous record and landmark settlements and verdicts across the state, while actively supporting women’s and children’s initiatives that deliver vital services to victims and survivors of sexual violence.
In an ongoing case being handled by Partner Justin B. Shapiro and Evan Robinson, a Trial Attorney at the firm, a young girl has been left with psychological and emotional scars after she was sexually assaulted at a South Florida gym.
The man who assaulted her was a member at the facility with a known history of violent and erratic behavior. Still, the gym did nothing to limit the man’s access to the property, leaving our client and other members vulnerable to harm.
In another ongoing case led by Bernardo Pimentel II, a Leesfield & Partners Trial Attorney, a woman’s life has been upturned after learning that she and various other cruise passengers were filmed in their private cabin bathrooms by a crew member who planted hidden cameras.
That crewmember was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for creating child sex abuse material as many of the passengers who were filmed were children.
Unresolved Questions
The harsh truth is this: While it may not be “all men,” as the saying goes, there are enough predatory incidents involving male passengers or drivers to make this a real and viable concern for women across the country. In figures of sexual assaults and rapes disclosed by Uber in its U.S. Safety Reports, there were more than 2,600 incidents of sexual assaults reported.
This is the latest and most recent data readily available to the public. These reports go back to at least 2017.
The data showed that there were 212 incidents of non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual body part; 182 attempted rapes; 1,036 sexual assaults; and 207 rapes in 2022.
While Lyft has been operating a similar feature since 2023 without any widespread reports of abuse or legal fallout from that feature, that doesn’t mean the system is bulletproof. In fact, the rollout of Uber’s version raises many of the same unresolved questions.
Will this feature, designed to put women’s minds at ease, actually keep them safe?
Uber’s framing of this program as “preferences” rather than hard filters means a woman may still end up paired with a male driver. While that’s understandable given current driver demographics, as mentioned above, it could also be perceived as subverting its intended purpose.
Can the System Be Exploited?
There’s currently no indication of what safeguards Uber has in place to verify that a passenger is actually the woman who requested the ride. What happens if a woman using the female-driver preference orders a ride for a male friend? Or if her account is compromised by someone with malicious intent? More troubling, what if someone creates a fake profile as a woman but shows up in person as a man?
While a female driver may refuse the ride, ask the individual to exit the vehicle, and report the incident, the potential for harm remains.
Without robust ID verification or real-time rider-driver confirmation protocols, this feature could unintentionally create new safety risks instead of solving existing ones.
Could Uber Be Liable for Assaults or Attacks Under This Program?
Historically, Uber has shielded itself from direct liability in car accidents by defining its role as a “technology platform” rather than as a transportation company. In motor vehicle accidents, this legal distinction has acted as a shield for the company in terms of liability and has often placed the burden on its individual drivers. However, with the introduction of this new feature, that line could become blurred.
By actively matching riders and drivers based on gender for safety reasons, Uber could be edging closer to assuming a legal duty of care, which is the obligation to take reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable harm.
If the unthinkable occurs and a woman requesting a female driver is matched with a male driver due to a system failure, or a male predator exploits the feature to target a female driver, then Uber could open itself up to liability.
This new feature could have the company walking a fine line. While the feature is commendable and the task of attempting to reduce vulnerability to violence and harassment is certainly a worthwhile pursuit, there are still many unanswered questions for how this feature will benefit the women using the app.
By introducing a “preference” without strong checks, clear terms or a transparent commitment to enforcement, some could say that the company is leaving women exposed. It could open Uber up to a new category of personal injury lawsuits. If the feature is going to work and make a difference in the lives of the women it is designed for, then the company will need safeguards, verifications, transparency and accountability.
