As a company that powers movement, Uber aims to ensure that everyone can move and earn freely and safely, whether physically, economically, or socially. Through the Women Preferred View, women drivers who use the Uber app can set a preference for picking up only women riders. Drivers can turn the feature on or off whenever they choose - so the control is in their hands. 

Riders, on the other hand, will be notified about the feature and will be asked to specify their gender on the app. For more convenience, female drivers can cancel the trip if the matched riders aren’t female without affecting their cancellation record.

Marjorie Saint-Lot, Country Manager for Uber in Ivory Coast and Côte d’Ivoire explains, “Uber prides itself on being an inclusive platform that allows people to push a button and find a decent and affordable way to generate income, regardless of gender, social or economic class, or age. Drivers are integral to our business and place real value on flexibility - gender shouldn’t be a barrier to feeling safe while earning a living or moving. Introducing this latest feature aims to encourage more women to drive on the platform while providing additional peace of mind.”

The Women Rider Preferred feature has expanded to 23 countries on five continents including South Africa. Globally, in the past quarter, four out of 10 women drivers on the Uber platform have used Women Rider Preference at least once, and we’ve seen over 44 million trips using this feature to date.

Emergency assistance at the palm of your hand

To complement the current suite of safety features such as GPS tracking, Trusted Contacts, and Safety Check-Up, Uber is proud to announce the In-App Emergency Button, powered by Aura’s cutting-edge security technology. 

The feature aims to provide on-demand security and medical response for riders and drivers while on a trip. Uber first collaborated with AURA in South Africa in 2016 to enhance the safety of its users on the platform which has proven to be immensely successful.

The collaboration provides drivers and riders on the Uber platform access to a vetted private security response and medical emergency response unit, which is closest to their location, using a connected device. The AURA platform uses machine learning and AI to draw on private security companies' widespread power and hone its system to ensure that the closest responders are dispatched to a distress call.

How does it work?

1. Riders and drivers can access the Safety Toolkit by tapping the shield icon on their app’s map screen. 
2. After tapping the Emergency Assistance feature, you will see your GPS location, the car make, model and licence plate.
3. If you tap the “Call Security” button, you will be connected to private emergency services and security responders and the above trip details will become available to them digitally and can be used to respond to an emergency. 
4. The app will indicate that trip information is automatically shared with emergency services. 
5. After your contact with the emergency services, Uber’s customer support team will check in to see if you’re alright. 

Saint-Lot concludes, “Whether by providing flexible earning opportunities, improving mobility and independence for drivers, developing innovative safety features for all riders and drivers or finding ways to help women earn, we’re committed to safety and doing our part to drive meaningful and economically empowering change.”