Onus on Didi to ensure safety of passengers

WEEKS AFTER a female passenger was raped and killed by the driver of a car registered with Didi Kuaidi, the domestic ride-hailing giant suspended its night service for one week to "plug the loopholes" in its security mechanism. Didi resumed the night service on Friday. Guangming Daily comments:

Didi said it has implemented a new set of rules for its night ride-hailing service. According to the new rules, only drivers who have been registered with Didi for more than six months and have clocked over 1,000 trips safely will be part of its night service－between 11 pm and 5 am.

Providing some data to support its claim of having implemented the new rules, Didi said 6.98 million passengers have added an "emergency contact person" to their information.

Earlier, Didi had promised that a passenger in danger could call the police and share his/her location by simply clicking on a Didi app button. But this time it said passengers cannot do so because of "certain limits". That, to some extent, is understandable because the arrangement requires the cooperation of the police, and different provinces and regions have different rules on the collection and use of personal information. So the relevant departments such as the public security bureau and telecom companies need to work together to ensure passengers' safety.

Yet that should not be an excuse for Didi to not fulfill its responsibilities.

In the week when Didi suspended its night service, many commuters had difficulty returning home after 11 pm. Some had to hire non-registered taxis that charged exorbitant amounts.

Didi is the leading ride-hailing service provider in China. In 2017 alone, it processed 7.43 billion ride-haling orders. And the bigger Didi gets the more responsibilities it has to shoulder to ensure the safety of passengers.