INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Didi Chxuing is making big changes to Hitch, its inter-city carpooling service, following the murder of a passengerat the hands of a driver
earlier this month.
Last week, Didi — China dominant ride-hailing service by some margin — expressed its &deep remorse& for the murder,
andsuspended Hitch for a week to conduct a review of the service.
Hitch, as the name suggests, is a hitchhiking-style service that groups
people who are headed in the same direction together
Unlike Didi other services, it isn&t commercial; passengers give the driver their share of fuel and any other costs they want to cover
That makes it affordable and hugely popular, but it has also made the service less professional than Didi other modes of transport
Indeed, many in China have claimed the service is ‘sleazy,& with many comments left about passenger appearances, particularly those who
are female.
The primary change will see Hitch available limited to daytime when the service resumes, with no new rides able to start between
the hours of 10pm and 6am.
In an apparent nod to the unsavory elements, Didi is scrubbing all Hitch driver and passenger reviews and ratings
Personal information for users will no longer be public, and profile photos will be replaced by generic images, Didi said.
Beyond Hitch,
Didi is also making changes to its driver authentication program.
That down, in a large part, to the fact that the suspect in the murder of
the passenger was not a verified Didi driver
He was able to use the app (on more than one occasion) by taking the smartphone belonging to his father, who is a verified Didi driver
Didi facial recognition technology, which verifies a driver identity before granting them access to the service, failed in this instance —
Didi said it was &defective& that day.
Didi is closing down the option for its drivers to use other people cars with their permission, and
implementing a &zero tolerance policy& on matching cars with their registered owners — a strange loophole that drew concern.
The Didi
service added an SOS button two years ago, and now it is aiming to refine that further by introducing automatic audio recording which is
passed in real-time to a customer support agentonce an SOS is activated
The firm said it is also weighing up adding video in the future
Conscious of privacy concerns, the company said the audio would be stored remotely, not on a passenger device, and deleted within 72 hours
if not needed for longer.
&We understand that not everyone is comfortable with having their trips recorded.Additional user authorization may
also be needed if in-vehicle video monitoringwere to be introduced in the future,& the company said.
&Nevertheless, this could be a most
effective means to enhance safety standards,and to ensure adequate evidence support for potential dispute resolution,& Didi added
&Wouldthis be an acceptable solution in the eyes of our users&
That one of a series of questions put out by Didi, which said it will solicit
opinions for potential safety measures
The company said it has booked &proactive consultation sessions with relevant authorities and experts& and it will also put out a call for
comment on its social media channels.
Didi is facing pressure from rival Meituan Dianping, which started out in local services but recently
introduced ride-sharing services andmoved into dockless bikes with the acquisition of Mobike.
This is not the first time that Didi, which
became China single-largest ride-hailing company whenit bought out Uber local business in 2016, has dealt with the murder of a customer
Two years ago,a woman in Shenzhen was robbed and murdered by a Didi driver.
