Didi announces more safety measures after second passenger murder

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing has recently announced a series of new measures to improve the riding safety one month after a female passenger was raped and murdered by a Didi driver, the second fatality case on hitching service this year.

Didi said it has formed a special task team to assist the police in speeding up the investigation and evidence collection legally. The special task team will start to work from September 30.

Besides, a number of new safety features will be added to ensure passenger's security, including random facial identification testing for drivers and the “emergency contact” button in Didi driver's app which directly connects to the police.

Earlier this month, Didi launched a “Safety” channel within passenger's app, which allows passengers to check and grasp security travelling guidelines and all safety functions. By far, the channel has gained over 10 million page views in total.

In addition, the company is exploring the mechanism to protect juveniles’ safety for their travels. It has released a warning instruction within passenger's app saying that juveniles must be accompanied by guardians when they are taking a Didi car.

Didi Chuxing suffers fierce social criticism since its system's defects were exposed in both murders. After the second fatality happened, the company shut the “hitching” service countrywide starting from August 27 and laid off two senior executives, the general manager of Didi's hitching service unit and vice president of customer service business.