Uber just rolled out a feature that lets riders request female drivers nationwide, and honestly, it’s worth talking about. The ride-share giant is making this option available across the US after successful pilot programs in San Francisco, LA, and Detroit last summer. Now you can set a preference in your Uber app to match with a female driver when possible, or even schedule rides in advance with a guaranteed woman behind the wheel.

Here’s the context though: Uber is doing this while fighting thousands of legal cases involving assault allegations on its platform. A report from last year found that the company received a new assault report every eight minutes between 2017 and 2022. Yeah, every eight minutes. So while the female driver matching feature is being celebrated as a win for women’s safety and autonomy, it’s also kind of a Band-Aid on a much bigger problem.

The feature actually started in Saudi Arabia back in 2019, right after women were first allowed to drive there. Since then, it’s expanded to 40 countries on the driver side, but this is the first major rollout in the US for riders. According to Uber, about one in five of their drivers are women, which means the wait times for a female driver could get pretty long during peak hours. The app will let you know if the wait is significantly longer and give you the option to grab a faster ride instead.

Uber’s framing this as empowerment, and in some ways, it is. Having the choice matters for a lot of people. The company quoted a Bay Area driver named Rejeanne in their announcement, saying she feels “unstoppable” and in control of her car while helping other women get where they need to go safely. That’s genuinely cool.

But let’s be real: a preference option doesn’t address the systemic issues that led to thousands of assault cases in the first place. It doesn’t mean Uber has suddenly gotten better at vetting drivers or responding to safety concerns. It’s a feature that helps individual riders feel more comfortable, which is valid, but it doesn’t solve the underlying problem of why assault reports were so alarmingly frequent.

The feature is now available in seven countries: the US, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Brazil, and Spain. In the US, it’s rolling out to major markets including New York, Philadelphia, and DC, on top of the cities where it was already being tested.

If you’re an Uber user, this new option is definitely worth checking out. But it’s also worth remembering that real safety improvements go way beyond letting riders choose a driver’s gender.