China’s Didi suspends Hitch ride-sharing service
BEIJING: China’s largest ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing is suspending its Hitch services nationwide, the company said in a statement on Sunday, a day after police said a ridesharing passenger in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou was raped and killed by a driver.
Didi Chuxing, the biggest ridesharing firm globally by number of trips, said it was sorry that the carpooling service would be suspended from August 27 due to “disappointing mistakes” while the company reevaluated the product’s business model.
The suspected murder of the 20-year-old woman, who Wenzhou police identified only with the surname Zhao, is the latest in a series of violent crimes that have fuelled safety concerns about the service.
Zhao got into a Hitch carpool vehicle at 1 pm (0500 GMT) on Friday, and sent a message to a friend at around 2 pm seeking help before losing contact, according to a local police statement. A 27-year-old driver named Zhong was detained at about 4 am on Saturday and confessed to raping and killing the passenger, the statement said.
Didi said on Sunday that the suspect has no prior criminal record, had provided authentic documentation and passed a facial recognition test before starting work.
However, the company said there was a prior complaint made against the driver on Thursday by a passenger who alleged the driver took them to a remote place and then followed the passenger after exiting the vehicle.