Hey, ladies: Ride sharing is about to become a whole lot less creepy, thanks to the new startup, Chariot for Women.
The ride-sharing service, set to go live on April 19, is “driven by women, exclusively for women,” according to the app’s website. It operates similarly to Uber or Lyft, but only women, girls and boys under 13 can request a Chariot, and all drivers are, unsurprisingly, women, Dose reported. This is meant to make us ride-sharing ladies feel less at risk of being violated by male Uber or Lyft drivers. Nice.
Chariot founder Michael Pelletz, a former Uber driver from Boston, told Dose he realized ride-sharing, both driver and passenger-wise, isn’t always the safest option for women after he had a scary experience driving a generally sketchy and equally hostile customer.
“What if I was a woman?” he said. “How would a woman handle that situation, especially when I was so nervous myself?”
Pelletz told USA Today that any women applying to drive with Chariot must go through the “most stringent” background check process in which every applicant will be fingerprinted. As an extra safety precaution, passengers will be sent a safe word to ask their driver to ensure the person picking them up is actually with Chariot.
One thousand women have already signed up to drive and ride with Chariot. Though legal concerns regarding the company’s employment of women only have circulated, Pelletz told USA Today his lawyers assured him “his company is running a legal business model that fulfills a market need.”
Download Chariot for Women off the Apple App Store or on their website here, and get ready to ride share (almost) stress free, for once.
This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2016.
adult women can pick up boys under 13 by themselves.
seems legit.
Now things can get really interesting…ponder adding MTF trans drivers for a moment…cab vs. bathroom…and I’m finding it a touch ironic this was started by a guy…do they check if you’re butch on that background check too??
Hmmm. All who read this article who are NOT afraid to walk across a parking lot alone at night, or NOT afraid to accept a drink from a stranger for fear of what extra little thing has been added to it, raise your hand.