WENZHOU / KARACHI (ENNS) A passenger in the Chinese city of Wenzhou was raped and killed by a driver of China’s — and the world’s — largest ride-hailing firm, Didi Chuxing (The company’s dominance there had forced Uber to merge its China service with it).
The company has since removed its vice president for customer services, and has suspended its carpooling service called Hitch. The suspect had no prior criminal record and had provided authentic documentation and passed a facial recognition test, but the company admitted there was a prior complaint against him a few days back for taking a passenger to a remote place and then following her after she got out of the car.
Unlike the usual “passenger safety is of utmost priority” and “we are coordinating with the authorities” that we see in India, Didi issued a mea culpa: “We are deeply sorry.
We fell short of your expectations. We can’t and we won’t shirk from our responsibilities.” (In contrast, Uber was accused of silencing rape victims in the US, and last year had to settle a lawsuit after it illegally obtained medical records of a rape victim in Delhi.)
The authorities, too, are coming down hard on Didi, saying it had “un-shirkable responsibility” for the incident. China is also tightening its regulations: It has ordered local authorities to set up passenger safety committees to ensure proper investigation.
