CHINA TOPIX

11/21/2024 10:30:43 pm

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Driver for Didi Detained for Driving Half-naked while Servicing Female Passenger

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A driver for a famous Chinese car-hailing service company was detained for 10 days for driving half-naked, news reports say.

The driver, a 33-year-old man registered as a driver for car-hailing company Didi Chuxing, was reported by a passenger as wearing nothing from the waist down, except covering his private parts with a loosely-placed pair of shorts, reports Shanghai Daily. He was driving along north China's Tianjin city in the morning Monday.

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The passenger, a woman, claimed that she was halfway through the trip when she noticed that the driver was in the said getup. She took a photo of the driver without the latter's knowledge, and then made an excuse to get out of the vehicle.

After getting out of the car, she then called Didi's customer service to report the incident, providing the photo as evidence. The company, however, only gave her a coupon as compensation.

Later in the day, the woman posted in her Weibo account that she received a threat from the driver through a text message. According to her, the driver texted, "You really have some guts. Are you trying to make some troubles here?"

A spokesperson for Didi said that they were immediately unable to contact the driver, but had halted his service based on the evidence provided by the woman. The spokesperson added that if the evidence is found true, the driver will be banned from the company.

The spokesperson also said that they will add an in-app police number to increase passenger protection.

Police were able to confirm that the driver indeed threatened the passenger with the text message. They added that the driver was found Monday at 9 p.m. and that he would be detained for 10 days.

This incident is one of the new incidents raising fears over the safety of the car-hailing services industry. Earlier, more than 8,000 drivers have been suspended for failing company service standards.

Last week, a driver was also suspected of robbing and killing a female passenger. The suspect dropped the victim's body in a remote area in Shenzhen.

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