Lyft's New Gender Feature Sparks Fierce Debate

On Tuesday, Lyft announced the addition of a new feature called Women+ Connect which will give women and nonbinary drivers the ability to match with more women and nonbinary riders.

The feature was created in an effort to provide women and nonbinary users a safer ride as both Lyft drivers and riders can select a preference that will increase their chances of being connected with a woman or nonbinary driver. However, with the rollout of the feature expected in the coming months, the ride-hailing service is facing much debate on the validity of the feature and whether it is necessary.

"Just for your own peace of mind, the ability to choose a woman driver might be exactly the thing that allows you to say, you know what, yeah, this really is making my life better," Lyft CEO David Risher told NBC's Savannah Sellers in an interview that aired on TODAY.

Some are taking to social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to voice their concerns on how the app intends to achieve this without the feature being abused.

One X user says there is more of an issue with how this preference will affect the amount of riders a driver gets.

"When they work grouped this, no one at the table saw a problem? How long before the first 'non-binary' driver shows up on the News saying this policy negatively impacted the amount of riders they/them had?"

The feature comes after Lyft revealed in 2021 their community safety report that they received over 4,000 reports of sexual assaults during their trips from 2017 to 2019.

Although the report did not specify whether the assaults had happened to riders or drivers, many are praising Lyft for coming out with a way that could help more women feel safer.

"This is good because as a woman I'd feel safer taking a ride from a woman. Too much crazy sht been happening with creepy Uber male drivers," an X user wrote.

Although Lyft said the feature won't affect men's experience with Lyft as they will continue to drive a mix of genders, some are saying the feature is discriminatory against men as they should also be able to have the same ability for a preference.

"This is punishing men that have done nothing, simply because of their gender. I understand that some women and non-binary riders are more comfortable with others like them. Nevertheless, imagine if men said we would prefer a male driver. That would be misogynistic," an X user wrote.

Lyft said the feature will exclusively roll out for early access in Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose and will soon add the Women+ Connect feature in more cities.

Newsweek has reached out to Lyft for additional comment.