New “Uber for Women” App Set to Launch Nationwide This Fall

Over the past six years, Uber absolutely revolutionized the taxi industry. Gone are the days where yellow cabs monopolized the market, charging you whatever they feel like. Uber has made local transport cheap, simple and fairly safe. In more than a billion rides, Uber has only had a handful of accidents. From 2012 to 2015, Uber registered that one in every 3.3 million rides resulted in a sexual harassment case filed.

For many women, the prospect of getting into a car with a strange man at night can still be quite daunting. This is particularly true for female survivors of sexual assault, who might fear being alone with men. To combat this struggle, SafeHer, a ride-share service exclusively for women, will be launching nationwide this fall. Founder Michael Pelletz first imagined this idea when his wife Kelly said she would love to drive an Uber car if not for fear of being sexually harassed or assaulted by customers. To combat this, Kelly, who is now the president of SafeHer, collaborated with Michael to create the app. The idea is simple: Women run the business, women drive the cars, women are passengers and a portion of the money spent goes toward charities which help women. This is truly a female-driven operation.

Originally set to launch in mid-April, the company pushed back its release date in order to sign even more drivers onto the service. The initial title was to be Chariot For Women, but was instead changed to SafeHer last month.