Drivers will be paid extra for additional riders in UberPool.

Bowing to persistent complaints, Uber announced Tuesday that it will pay drivers more for additional riders they pick up on a shared trip.

UberPool, which uses the same car to carry multiple passengers who have overlapping routes, has faced resistance from Uber drivers who consider it extra work for little or no additional money.

Drivers also say Pool riders, who may not like the other passengers with whom they are paired, give them lower performance ratings. Online driver forums often feature rants against the program, with the writers urging their fellow drivers not to accept Pool rides.

In response, Uber will now give drivers extra money for each pickup on a Pool trip. Compensation will vary among the 13 U.S. cities where Pool is offered. In San Francisco, drivers will receive $1 for each additional pickup after the first rider is on board.

“That’s really our key here, earning more and stressing less,” said Aaron Schildkrout, Uber’s head of driver product, on a conference call with reporters. “Our hope is that our drivers will begin to look forward to the next pickup on UberPool.”

Harry Campbell, an Uber and Lyft driver in Los Angeles and author of the Rideshare Guy blog, said the extra money represented an improvement in a program many drivers try to avoid.

“It’s tough for me to say if it’s going to be worth it until I get out there and drive and see how it works,” said Campbell. “But it definitely shows that Uber understands that extra pickups and drop-offs are more work.”

Lyft, which also offers shared rides it calls Lyft Line, increased its pay for drivers in July so shared rides match the rate paid for regular rides. Previously, drivers earned a lower rate for Lyft Line rides.

On Uber and Lyft, shared rides give passengers a discount in exchange for sharing the trip. Both companies — and many transportation experts — see shared rides as essential for reducing gridlock in increasingly dense and crowded cities.

But making extra stops in a trip adds complexity for the driver and time for the rider. Riders also have no control over who else shares the car. And they may not appreciate that passengers who are picked up after them may get dropped off first.

So Uber, based in San Francisco, is tweaking the Pool system in several ways.

The company will put more effort into educating riders on how Pool works, including reminding them to be at their pickup spot before the car arrives. Riders requesting a pickup in the middle of a block may also receive a suggestion from their app to wait instead at a nearby street corner to speed up the ride.

Uber has updated its software to create straighter routes. The improvements can cut the number of turns made during a trip by up to 20 percent, according to the company.

If a Pool rider gives the driver low ratings and points to things the driver can’t easily control — like an obnoxious fellow passenger or a trip with too many riders — it will not count against that driver’s total rating.

The changes to Pool are part of the company’s 180 Days of Change campaign, an effort to improve the driving and riding experience and help repair Uber’s battered image. Other steps taken so far have included enabling tipping.

That image took another hit Tuesday, as lawyers representing a 44-year-old London woman said the company failed to provide female drivers with sufficient security. Uber said its app offered protections to drivers and didn’t require them to take trips they don’t want to.

London’s transport regulator has moved to ban the service from the city because of concerns about passenger safety, and a British employment tribunal appeal will start probing pay and vacation time for drivers Wednesday. Bloomberg News contributed

to this report.