Uber is rolling out a new program for women in the U.S. that allows them to choose female riders or drivers, the company said Wednesday.

“Across the U.S., women riders and drivers have told us they want the option to be matched with other women on trips,” Uber said in a statement.

Women customers will see an option called “women drivers” and choose a different driver based on the pick-up time. Female riders will also be able to pre-book trips with women drivers. Only 1 in 5 Uber drivers are women, according to the company.

Women drivers will be able to choose the “women rider preference” option in their settings to get paired with female customers.

“When we make our platform better for women, we make it better for everyone,” Camiel Irving, Uber’s vice president of U.S. and Canada operations, said in a release. “It’s about giving women more choice, more control, and more comfort when they ride and drive.”

The setting originally debuted in Saudi Arabia in 2019 and has expanded to 40 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, France, India, Mexico and Poland.

“Since then, the feature has expanded to 40 countries, completing over 100 million trips,” the company said.

The U.S. program is starting in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit “in the next few weeks” before expanding to other markets.

Rival Lyft started a similar program in 2023 for women and nonbinary users.

The feature is another option intended to make the app safer.

Uber reported 2,717 individual reports of sexual assault — with the overwhelming majority of victims being riders — in the years 2021-2022, according to the company’s most recent US Safety Report.

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