Uber Launches “Women Preferred View” Feature for Women Drivers in Saudi Arabia

Uber has announced that it has launched a new “Women Preferred View” feature that is meant for women drivers in Saudi Arabia. This gives them with a choice when it comes to the riders as they can opt to be connected to women riders. This marks a global first for Uber. Uber conducted a pilot run of the Women Preferred feature last year and it proved to be highly popular. Hence, it has now been incorporated as a full-fledged feature that is exclusive to women drivers in Saudi Arabia.

The feature has been debuted as a followon to the ride-hailing company’s Masaruky initiative that was implemented with the goal of increasing the participation of women in the workforce through access to affordable transportation, as women can now use Uber technology to get access to flexible, part time economic opportunities.

The new feature is meant to cater to the growing interest among Saudi women to benefit from the flexible economic opportunity that Uber provides, and Uber’s ongoing drive to be mindful of the cultural ethos in  Saudi Arabia.

Commenting on the launch of the new feature, Tino Waked, General Manager of Uber Middle East and North Africa, said that in 2018, Uber has launched Masaruky, an initiative that aims to empower women with economic opportunities by providing accessible transport solutions. Masaruky received an incredible response in the Kingdom. As part of this initiative, the new introduced feature would open new doors and opportunities for women as Uber driver-partners, while at the same paying heed to local cultural norms.

He further added “We launched this feature in response to the feedback we received from women drivers in Saudi Arabia and we are committed to always being thoughtful of how we can always improve their experience driving on the app. This is just the start, and we will continue working with experts to leverage our external research as we move forward to ensure that this is in the best interest of women driver-partners in the Kingdom”

Uber introduced the new future after months of research to understand the perspectives of Saudi women on transport and driving, and this was followed by a pilot run. Uber’s research was carried out in collaboration with Ipsos, in February 2018. It found that almost 31 percent of the respondents were  interested in exploring driving as an earnings opportunity. The company also conducted a more recent study which found that 74 percent of prospective women drivers were keen only on driving women riders.

Since its pilot run last year Women Preferred View has connected female driver-partners with female riders at the push of a button across the Kingdom.