Chariot for Women, a new ride-sharing service set to debut on April 19 in Boston, will feature women drivers and will only accept women customers.
The founder is Uber driver Michael Pelletz, who thought about such a service after himself experiencing a terrifying situation. He thought about how a woman driver would have reacted to what happened to him one night, when a passenger that he picked up was incoherently babbling about things and squirming violently in the backseat.
Pelletz decided to pull over and alert a police officer about his passenger. He then remembered his wife previously saying that she would also like to try out being an Uber driver, but she was scared and nervous to take the job.
Chariot for Women was the product of Pelletz' thoughts on how to improve the safety of passengers, as the service would feature rides driven by women for women and children passengers only.
Children passengers below 13 years old of any gender are welcome to be passengers for the service. Transgender individuals that identify themselves as women are also welcome to be drivers and riders for Chariot for Women.
Safety is the top priority for the new ride-sharing service. In addition to the women drivers undergoing heavy background checks, they are required to answer a random security question daily to prove their identity to the Chariot for Women app. Upon a ride request, a word pops up on the app for both the driver and passenger, which should match to make sure that the correct pairing is made before the ride begins.
Passengers will be able to see the picture of their driver, along with the car model and license plate number, through the app, which will also display the location of their requested ride through real-time GPS tracking.
Kelly Pelletz, Michael's wife, has been named the president of Chariot for Women, and she implemented an initiative that will have 2 percent of every fare made through the service to serve as a donation to women-based charities. There will be 10 local and national charities supported by the service each month, and during the ride, passengers can choose to which charity they would send their donation to.
Chariot for Women, however, will likely face legal challenges, despite the alarming number of reports of assault and rape in other ride-sharing services. Uber was hit with a lawsuit in October last year due to the service allegedly neglecting the safety of its female passengers.
"We look forward to legal challenges," said Pelletz. "We want to show there's inequality in safety in our industry. We hope to go to the U.S. Supreme Court to say that if there's safety involved, there's nothing wrong with providing a service for women."
Does Chariot for Women empower women, or patronize them? The question was posted by TechCrunch's Kristen Hall-Geisler on social media, and the response was decisive. Women unanimously said that they would use the service, especially as their trust with male drivers for ride-sharing services have dwindled due to reported incidents.
The Chariot for Woman app will be available on April 19.
