On the evening of November 7, Didi, an online ride-hailing platform, announced that during the small-scale trial operation of Hitch, in order to ensure the safety of the trial product and service, the service time for all Hitch users will be adjusted to 5:00-20:00. That is, users will not be able to use Didi Hitch service after 8:00 pm.
In the announcement, Didi said, "It is our principle to provide equal services to users. We should provide services uniformly or temporarily not provide services during the same time period. We have not considered this carefully and made mistakes in decision-making. We are very sorry."
The previous day, Didi announced that Hitch would start trial operation in seven cities including Harbin and Beijing on November 20. What caused widespread controversy is that there are differences in the use time of male and female passengers in the trial operation plan of Didi Hitch. The service time for male passengers is 5:00-23:00, while for women it is 5:00-20:00, that is, after 8:00 pm, women cannot use Didi Hitch service.
That evening, Didi President Liu Qing said on his personal Weibo, as a senior female white-collar worker, I also feel that the current ride product function is not very easy to use for female students; but in terms of safety, it is a practice run on thin ice.
In the announcement on the evening of November 7, Didi said that after listening to the opinions and suggestions of all parties, it decided to adjust this rule, and the time for all Hitch users to provide services was adjusted to 5:00-20:00. Future product service rules will continue to be iterated and optimized.
According to the data provided by Didi in the announcement, according to the statistics of past safety complaints of Hitch, the number of sexual complaints in the two time periods of 20:00-23:00 and 23:00-5:00 was 45% and 465% higher than that of 5:00-20:00, respectively.
According to data released by the China Judicial Big Data Research Institute in 2018, night is also the peak time for criminal cases in the taxi and online car-hailing industry. In 2017, 52 cases of taxi driver crimes occurred at night, accounting for 30% of the overall crime cases of taxi drivers. Nine cases of online car-hailing driver crimes occurred at night, accounting for 50% of the overall crime cases of online car-hailing drivers.
Therefore, Didi said, but based on the safety data mentioned above, it decided to choose a relatively conservative plan. (Reporter, Chen Yuxi)
Attachment: Announcement of Didi Hitch on the evening of November 7
Yesterday, we announced the plan for the trial operation of Hitch, one of which was about the night service rules for users (5-20 points for female users and 5-23 points for male users), which aroused discussion and criticism.
Before the announcement of the plan, we did not discuss this rule with the public and did not fully listen to the opinions of all parties. At the same time, we apologize for the trouble caused to everyone due to poor consideration and improper communication.
After listening to the opinions and suggestions of all parties, we decided to adjust this rule. During the small-scale trial operation of Hitch, in order to ensure the safety of the trial product and service to the greatest extent, the service time for all Hitch users is adjusted to 5:00-20:00. During the practice run (no information service fee), the product service rules may continue to be iteratively optimized, and there will be various inconveniences in use. Please understand and give us suggestions.
Once again, I would like to express my sincere apologies for yesterday’s improper communication. Please believe in us and our safety efforts in the past year. Didi’s original intention is also to hope that all users and drivers can travel well and go home safely. But in the face of complex ride-hailing safety problems, we do have many areas that are not thoughtful and have no good policies at present. We will continue to improve in the days to come, constantly listen to opinions, and do our best to travel well.
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In addition, we would also like to share with you our thoughts on ride-hailing safety:
In this trial operation plan, Hitch permanently logged off all sensitive information related to user privacy such as personalized avatar, gender, and long text evaluation; the owner of the joint ride needs to go through facial recognition, and both drivers and passengers need to check the information before getting on the bus. In the long-distance travel scenario, the number of face recognition times of the owner will be increased, the user will be reminded to set emergency contacts, and the itinerary will be automatically recorded. The user access link of Hitch has now realized full real names. The owner of Hitch and the driver of the express car need to carry out three-certificate verification, background screening and facial recognition, and the person who is discredited will not be able to register as the owner of Hitch.
According to the statistics of past safety complaints from Hitch, we found that the number of sexual complaints in the two time periods of 20:00-23:00 and 23:00-5:00 was 45% and 465% higher than that in 5:00-20:00, respectively.
According to the data released by the China Judicial Big Data Research Institute in 2018 *, in the taxi and online car-hailing industry, night is also the peak time for criminal cases. In 2017, 52 cases of taxi driver crimes occurred at night, accounting for 30% of the overall crime cases of taxi drivers. Nine cases of online car-hailing driver crimes occurred at night, accounting for 50% of the overall crime cases of online car-hailing drivers.
We are well aware that too many rules will harm the shared experience of car owners and passengers, but the platform still needs to make every effort to guard against human uncertainties and do everything possible to keep safety risks out. Since the ride-sharing is a private car ride-sharing relationship, the owner and the passenger are mutual assistance and the car belongs to the owner’s private space. It is impossible to force the installation of camera equipment and regular offline Security Training for the owner like the express car. Feasible measures to improve night safety are limited.
The trial operation time is adjusted to 5:00-20:00, which is definitely not the most perfect solution, but it is indeed a choice we made under various conditions. We have also considered adjusting it to 23:00 uniformly, but based on the safety data mentioned above, we still decided to choose a relatively conservative solution. Please understand.
In addition, providing equal services to users is a principle we should abide by. We should provide services uniformly or temporarily not at the same time. We are very sorry for our poor consideration and wrong decision-making.
Thank you to all the friends who have criticized, cared about, and helped Didi Hitch. We will carefully study everyone’s opinions and do our best to provide safe, economical, and smooth travel services.
* Data source: "Special Report on Judicial Big Data on Crime in the Process of Online Car-hailing and Traditional Taxi Services", China Judicial Big Data Research Institute under the Supreme People’s Court, September 2018.