Autonomous taxis are winning over women in cities like San Francisco by offering an answer to a long-standing concern about ride-hailing apps: misbehavior by human drivers, especially men.
Now, those driver safety concerns are helping to fuel the popularity of autonomous taxis — especially for women traveling alone or at night.
About three-quarters of Lyft and Uber drivers are men, according to industry and academic surveys.
Lyft said in a statement to NBC News that it continues to try to improve safety, including with driver background checks, driver ratings, driver education and an emergency phone line for passengers.
In 2023, Lyft started a feature, Women+ Connect, that allows women or nonbinary drivers to opt in to prefer riders who are women or nonbinary, and vice versa.
Persons:
they’ve, Veronica Pastore, it’s, “ I’ve, ’ ”, Pastore, “ It’s, ”, they’d, they’re, Abby Vigil, she’s, Robotaxis, driverless, “, Jason Munderloh, ” Waymo, Lyft, Uber, Waymo, ” Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi, Diana Taurasi, Megan Neese, Neese, Amazon’s, Elon Musk, Jayka Noelle, Noelle, TikTok, DaBabyBoomers, Cheryl Baxter, Beth Bowles
Organizations:
San Francisco, Gig Workers, Rider, NBC News, CNBC, Phoenix Mercury, Google, Motors ’, Tesla
Locations:
San Francisco, Lyft, San, ”, —, U.S, Atlanta, Austin , Texas, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Austin, Scottsdale , Arizona