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Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US (www.uber.com)
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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When women riders and drivers told us they wanted more control over how they ride and earn, we listened. That feedback led to Women Preferences, features designed to give women the choice to ride with other women. Since our first pilots last summer, we’ve heard just how much that choice matters—from feeling more comfortable in the back seat to more confident behind the wheel.

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[–] 8 points 6 months ago (4 children)

That also only solves half of the problem. Female drivers also want to be safe and doing background checks on everyone who has an Uber account isn't very practical.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    The article says Uber lets women avoid male drivers, which implies that at the very least the Uber account is registered as female, which means female drivers could choose to only accept jobs offered through this system.

    That raises the question how Uber is deciding that drivers and clients are women. Could a prospective rapist make a "female" burner account to ambush women? Are trans women who are unrecognized by the state excluded even if they're at far higher risk than cis women?

    Of course the real solution is public transit. Uber is dangerous because it means leaving two strangers together for every single journey. For the vast majority of people taking public transit, there will be many strangers in the same cabin who can all help keep each other in line.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago

    The article briefly talks about female drivers too, which is what I talking about.

    Women drivers can toggle on a preference to receive trip requests from women riders, giving them even more control over how they earn.

    (and the image/gif seems to imply it'll exclusively accept rides from women riders)

    But yes, if gender is self-declared then it'd be pretty easy to abuse by a malicious rider (I assume, without proof, that drivers have to be vetted somehow). If they require a phone number for new rider accounts it shouldn't be too hard to keep banned malicious users out, though. There are more foolproof ways, but they have other issues (e.g. ID verification is a privacy nightmare and potentially transphobic depending on local government policies).

    It's been a little while since I've used any sort of taxi service because the local public transit is pretty good, but I know a lot of the USA isn't so lucky there either. That's more of a cultural problem though.

    On a semi-related note, it's quite ironic that Uber made a change for only their home nation on International Women's Day.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (1 child)

    It wouldn’t even solve the half of the problem, though. Men stop harassing women as soon as they are full time employees, what? Background checks are going to prevent harassment, what?

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago

    It's because men are hazed into behaving in a fucked up way, like "grab her by the pussy, what are you, gay?" type of behavior by other men. It's fucked up, and there is no authority dealing with these problems at the root. Other men want to fit in, and this soon becomes their actual personality.

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