Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US

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This is not new, it seems, although the previous ones were just tests: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44659635

Lyft already has such a feature, and personally I've been getting into Empower more, which also has the feature. This app pays more for drivers due to not actually acting as a taxi company but simply connecting the driver and rider marketplaces, something Uber tried to do as well but failed due to legal challenges as well as keeping margin for themselves. Empower just charged $50 per month to drivers as a subscription fee for the service and then lets them keep all the actual ride money.

However, just as with a marketplace connector like TripAdvisor or TaskRabbit, your mileage may vary (literally) in terms of driver ratings and safety, due to Empower not doing as comprehensive background checks as Uber or Lyft, so it is up to your personal risk tolerance.

We are reinventing, from first principles, the discrimination we fought so hard against in the 20th century.

Unfortunately necessary. Essentially every girl I know has had at least one bad experience with a creepy uber driver. These are people that are entering their address and often their workplace into the app. It's a big reason why a lot of my friends are picking Waymos instead.

Does this mean women drivers will command higher rates?

That might be tough - I remember having plenty of women drivers back in 2012 when uber and Lyft just got started. These days they’re extremely rare.

I had no idea you can request to exclude on the basis of protected class. Could you exclude black riders as well as a safety precaution in places where say that demographic has higher homicide rates?

If this form of discrimination is ok, can we get other filters?