Uber now lets women and non-binary riders request women drivers. It’s rolling out in the US, and eventually Canada…
As a gay man, I’ll say it: even I prefer having a female driver most of the time. It just feels safer. Calmer. Less like I have to keep my guard up. So, I can only imagine how overdue this new feature feels for so many women and non-binary riders.
Uber’s rolling out a “Women Preferences” option — starting in US cities like LA, San Francisco and Detroit — that allows users to request a woman driver. You’ll also be able to pre-schedule a ride with a woman, or set your default preference to increase the odds. It’s been in testing across countries like France, Germany, and Saudi Arabia (where it first launched back in 2019). Now it’s finally heading west.
It’s not available in Canada yet, but the implications already hit close to home.
Riders have been asking for this for years
Let’s be real. This isn’t some niche demand. It’s been one of the most common rider safety requests for years.
If you’ve ever sat in the back of an Uber and planned what to say if the driver makes you uncomfortable — or tracked your own ride just in case — then you get it. This isn’t about discrimination. It’s about survival instincts kicking in, because lived experience tells you to stay alert.
Women, non-binary folks, and queer riders have long said: just give us the option. Uber finally listened. That alone is a win.
It’s more than just a toggle in settings
This isn’t a half-baked feature buried in the app. Riders can choose a woman driver on demand, book a future trip with one, or update their preferences to prioritize those matches.
And it’s not one-sided. Women drivers can also choose to only accept trips from women and non-binary riders. That part might be even bigger. There are drivers who avoid working late nights or certain neighbourhoods altogether — not because of traffic or surge pricing, but because they don’t feel safe. This could change that.
Of course, there’s the practical hurdle: most drivers are still men. But Uber says it’s learned from its test markets and built the feature with that reality in mind. In other words, it should still work — even if the pool of women drivers is small to start.
Some will call it unfair. But safety isn’t always symmetrical
It’s predictable. Every time something like this rolls out, there’s a vocal group asking if men will get the same option.
Here’s the thing. That question only makes sense if you pretend, we all experience risk the same way. But we don’t.
Giving people more control over who they get into a car with doesn’t take anything away from anyone else. It just adds a layer of agency to a system that, for a long time, has felt like a coin toss for safety.
This is not about segregation. It’s about breathing easier on your way home.
Should Canada be paying attention? Absolutely
In Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal — any major Canadian city really — this feature would be used immediately. StatsCan has shown that more than half of women in Canada feel unsafe walking alone at night. Ride-shares aren’t exempt from that. They’re part of the problem and part of the potential solution.
The demand is already here. If Uber wants to show it’s serious about rider safety, expanding this to Canada shouldn’t take long. And if they don’t, someone else will. I am sure we’ll be seeing it very soon!
Let’s not pretend this is just a feature update
This isn’t just an app tweak. It’s a response to years of people saying, “Hey, this system isn’t built with me in mind.”
Uber has fumbled a lot when it comes to safety, especially for people from marginalized communities. But this? This feels like a rare moment where they actually listened, tested it properly, and rolled it out in a way that might actually work.
When it lands in Canada, it’ll be more than welcome. It’ll be necessary.
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