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Entity has the scoop on SafeHer, a female ride sharing app.

We live in an age in which popular smartphone apps such as Uber and Lyft have almost completely run traditional taxi businesses into the ground. The days of standing by a curb and hailing a cab have been replaced by a online service of utmost convenience. All one must do is download the app to summon a ride, type in a destination and press request. There must be a catch, right?

Although Uber claims that they provide “the safest rides on the road,” countless cases of alleged sexual assault, deaths, kidnappings and more have been reported by users –  the majority of whom are women traveling alone. This is where SafeHer comes in. It’s essentially a female-only ride sharing company, in which the drivers are all women and the only passengers they’re allowed to service must be female, the one exception being any child younger than thirteen.

Originally known as Chariot For Women, SafeHer launched nationwide earlier this year. The service performs background checks on all of their drivers to ensure users’ safety. They also don’t implement the dreaded surcharge. To make sure there’s no confusion between driver and passenger, they’re both assigned a specific code when a ride is requested. Before the passenger climbs into the vehicle, she must compare codes with the driver to make sure that the car she’s getting into is the right one.

The cherry on top? A portion of the proceeds from a passenger’s fare will go to the charity of her choice.

Sounds perfect, right? The only hitch in the SafeHer project is that the company could be facing legal issues. Only offering rides to women is technically discrimination in the eyes of the law, even if it is for safety reasons. But CEO Michael Pelletz is willing to go to court, saying that he “looks forward to legal challenges.” He argues that there is a great need for such a service in the market, saying, “[SafeHer] is resonating … because there’s unfortunately such a need for what we’re doing. It’s all just about keeping women safe and empowering them.”

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