The city of Boston is home to a new ride-share service geared exclusively toward a female clientele.

Chariot for Women is scheduled to formally launch across Massachusetts on April 19. The service is the brainchild of former Uber driver Michael Pelletz, who claims he was moved to launch the company after feeling threatened by one of his passengers.

"What if I was a woman," he mused of his motivations for starting Chariots for Women on the company's website. Pelletz also claims his wife once decided against driving Uber over concerns about safety.

Kelly Pelletz now serves as president of Chariot for Women.

Women Have Voiced Uber Complaints

In recent times, scores of women have reported instances of rape and other forms of assault by Uber drivers. Just last month, the company again found itself the subject of negative headlines after one of its drivers went on a deadly shooting spree in Kalamazoo, Michigan that left six people dead.

Authorities allege Brian Dalton continued to pick up fares in the middle of his bloody rampage. Earlier this month, Uber agreed to pay up to $25 million to the government in proceedings that stemmed from allegations company officials mislead passengers about the depths of background checks it performed on all of its drivers.

Uber Adding to Female Workforce

Back in 2015, Uber officials pledged to have one million female drivers as part of staff by the year 2020. Company officials added by then 19 percent of all drivers were women, up some five percent over just a year earlier.

In all, females were said to account for nearly one third (29 percent) of all new-driver signups, with nearly 230,000 women driving their first Uber fare in 2015.

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