Didi sorry after passenger’s murder

Ride-hailing giant admits to ‘ignorance and pride’ over safety lapses

Beijing: China ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing issued an apology for a string of lapses that led to the rape and murder of a passenger last week, the second such killing this year.

The company has been slammed by observers, including China’s transport ministry, over safety lapses after a 20-year-old female passenger was raped and murdered by her driver in the eastern city of Wenzhou on Friday, barely three months after a similar incident in May.

Founder Cheng Wei and president Jean Liu apologised for their “ignorance and pride” in an emotive note, promising an overhaul to ensure customer safety.

“Throughout the company we start to question if we are doing the right thing; or even whether we have the right values,” said the statement released on Tuesday.

“There is an enormous amount of self-doubt, guilt and soul-searching.”

The company earlier admitted it bore responsibility for the crime, failing to act on a complaint about the same driver from another passenger who said he had driven her to an isolated location and followed her in his car after she left the vehicle.

The lengthy apology, which was posted on Didi’s official account on the Twitter-like Weibo platform, attracted nearly 53,000 comments in less than three hours but did little to placate angry users worried about their safety.

“You are only concerned about earnings”, commented one user.

“You apologise, but you never change,” another user wrote.

In response to the fierce criticism that followed last week’s killing, Didi announced the suspension of its Hitch service, which links up commuters travelling in the same direction.

The company also said it would upgrade its SOS button and itinerary sharing functions that allow a user to share their journey with a chosen contact.

Friday’s murder follows the killing in May of a 21-year-old air ste- wardess by her driver as she was using the Hitch service. In 2016, a 24-year-old female passenger using the same service was robbed and murdered.

News of the murder has dominated Chinese media for days and the topic “female passenger killed on Didi Hitch” has been trending on the Weibo microblogging site.

China’s transport ministry censured the company on Sunday, calling for it to improve its driver vetting and education processes. — AFP