Lyft's new feature lets women and non-binary riders request their driver's gender | CNN Business
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Lyft is introducing a new feature that lets women and non-binary riders choose a preference to match with drivers of the same gender.

Lyft is introducing a new feature that lets women and non-binary riders choose a preference to match with drivers of the same gender.

The ride-hailing company said it was a “highly requested feature” in a blog post Tuesday, saying the new feature allows women and non-binary people to “feel that much more confident” in using Lyft and also hopefully encourage more women to sign up to be drivers to access its “flexible earning opportunities.”

The service, called “Women+ Connect,” is rolling out in the coming months. Riders can turn on the option in the Lyft app, however the company warns that it’s not a guarantee that they’ll be matched with a women or non-binary person if one of those people aren’t nearby. Both the riders and drivers will need to opt-in to the feature for it work and riders must chose a gender for it to work.

  • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
    4·
    1 year ago

    In this specific situation no one is kneecapping anyone though. For men nothing changes. Some here in the comments are just butthurt that others get a tiny feature to make it more safe for them. While men didn’t have any change to their safety by being able to just have male drivers.

    It’s literally just people being uncompassionate and angry over nothing.

    • abbotsbury@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 year ago

      For men nothing changes

      if male drivers are deprioritized, that results in them getting less riders and being a second class worker. I think we can all agree that the gig economy is shitty enough already and we dont need to add a caste system on top of it

      • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
        1·
        1 year ago

        This is something they do to get more drivers. It was a caste system before because the higher probability of women and non-binary people to get assaulted, harassed, even raped was a factor keeping them away from that job.

        • abbotsbury@lemmy.world
          3·
          1 year ago

          This is something they do to get more drivers

          Yes, they introduced a lazy solution to try and make more money

          It was a caste system before because the higher probability of women and non-binary people to get assaulted

          That’s not a caste system, and introducing actual systemic discrimination is not a solution to a safety issue.

          If Lyft actually wanted solutions, they could vet their drivers more, take reports of vulnerable people seriously and give consequences to drivers which act abusive, create a “trusted driver” program, etc, there are tons of solutions that don’t involve discriminating on 3/4 of their drivers because they’re trying to make more money