Online car-hailing cases are high, and when will Didi’s ＂beautiful travel＂ promise be fulfilled？
"Didi, beautiful travel" is the advertising slogan of Didi Chuxing platform.
But in reality, Didi’s promise of "better travel" for passengers has not been 100% fulfilled.
In early May this year, Li, a 21-year-old flight attendant, was brutally murdered by a driver while riding Didi Hitch near Zhengzhou airport. The case attracted public attention after it was exposed. Before that, the "Didi beating people" incident had not yet subsided, and the case of Didi’s owner allegedly assaulting passengers had also been reported by the media many times.
Recently, the Haidian District People’s Court in Beijing revealed that it is not the first time that Didi owners have killed passengers, and cases of Didi owners suspected of intentional homicide, robbery, and endangering public safety by dangerous methods are not uncommon.
Online car-hailing cases are high, what kind of responsibility should the platform take? How to ensure the safety of passengers? How can relevant departments fulfill their regulatory responsibilities? How to achieve online car-hailing from "chaos" to "governance"? Recently, a reporter from Legal Daily conducted an interview around the above issues.
Online car-hailing cases against passengers are not uncommon
Combing through previous media reports, reporters found that Didi owners suspected of intentional homicide, rape, indecent assault is not the first case. In related cases, the driver’s modus operandi is mostly to carry female passengers, in the process of vehicle driving or in subsequent exchanges.
In the early morning of November 2016, Hou, a Didi driver, took advantage of his drunkenness to molest a female passenger after delivering her to her destination. Hou surrendered on the same day and obtained the victim’s understanding. For committing the crime of forced molestation, Hou was sentenced to 10 months in prison by the court, suspended for one year.
In the early morning of August 2016, Cai, a ride-hailing driver, threatened a female passenger with a stun gun in his car and forcibly had sex with her. Due to other rape cases, Cai was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the court.
In the early morning of July 2015, after receiving a passenger, Zheng, a driver of Didi Hitch, took violent measures such as slapping him in the car and forcibly had sex with him. After the passenger called the police, Zheng was arrested by the public security organs the next day and sentenced to four years in prison.
In addition, intentional injury cases caused by disputes and altercations between car owners and passengers are also relatively high. In such cases, taxis, special cars, ride-hailing, and chauffeur are all involved.
According to Haidian court judge Jiang Nan, cases of online car-hailing drivers infringing on passengers have occurred from time to time in recent years, spanning the country from a geographical perspective, with the nature ranging from murder, robbery and other vicious cases to intentional injury, fraud, and theft. The number of criminal cases derived from online car-hailing platforms is much higher than the public is aware of.
After the assassination of the flight attendant was exposed, Didi became the target of public criticism. The murderer Liu borrowed his father’s account to take orders, which raised questions about the platform’s false audit.
After the incident, some media conducted actual tests on the Didi platform and found that there were security risks in the registration of car owners on the Didi Hitch platform. Some female drivers were still able to "successfully authenticate their real names" after uploading the relevant documents of male drivers. In addition, there is also "vest registration" on the market, that is, there are special third-party platforms to handle registration business, including counterfeiting license plates.
The reporter has also encountered many cases in the process of using Didi to hail a car. After the reporter questioned, the driver said that the number was limited that day, so he changed to another car. Several drivers previously told reporters that as long as they log in with their registered accounts, no matter which car or person they are, they can take orders.
It is understood that Didi Hitch has also launched driver facial recognition before, but only in the authentication process, daily orders do not need facial recognition, which also leaves a hidden danger for security. The flight attendant was killed, and the murderer Liu was able to use his father’s account to receive orders, indicating that there was a problem with the security mechanism of previous Hitch orders.
In addition, in the Hitch business, personalized comments and tagging functions are also highly questionable. Screenshots from netizens show that Hitch drivers can see relevant information about passengers before receiving orders, as well as comment tags from drivers of previous orders, such as "beautiful appearance", "sweet voice", "beautiful without makeup", etc., many of which are explicit words. It is generally believed that the comment function will induce drivers, thereby increasing the safety risk of female passengers. At present, the Didi platform has turned off this function.
The platform review is not strict, and the accident should be held responsible
It is understood that the Didi Chuxing platform offers a variety of transportation methods, including taxis, express trains, special cars, and hitchhikers.
The "Interim Measures for the Administration of Online Booking Taxi Business Services", which came into effect in November 2016, stipulates that the online car-hailing platform company shall assume the responsibility of the carrier and shall ensure the safety of operation; Article 18 stipulates that the online car-hailing platform company shall ensure that the driver providing the service has the legal qualification; Ensure that the driver providing the service online is the same as the driver actually providing the service offline. At the same time, Article 38 of the Interim Measures also clearly stipulates that private passenger car sharing, also known as carpooling and hitchhiking, shall be implemented in accordance with the relevant regulations of the city people’s government.
"The regulation excludes Hitch from the responsibility of the carrier of the online car-hailing." Zhao Zhanzhan, a special researcher at the E-commerce Research Center and a lawyer at Beijing Zhilin Law Firm, told reporters that according to the interim measures, Hitch does not belong to the category of online car-hailing, and there are no entry threshold requirements for vehicles and drivers. Hitch platforms do not need to bear the responsibility of the carrier like online car-hailing platforms. Hitch platforms provide information services, which should legally be regarded as intermediary contract services for passengers and Hitch drivers. "Under normal circumstances, Hitch platforms are not legally responsible for personal injuries encountered by passengers during the ride of Hitch. But if the Hitch platform does not fulfill the obligation of identity verification for the Hitch driver, it needs to be held responsible for it," Zhao Zhanzhan said.
Zhang Xinnian, a lawyer at Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, believes that according to the safe haven and red flag rules in the field of online infringement, if the ride-hailing platform fulfills the legal and agreed obligations of real-name registration, human-vehicle verification, and operation data can be checked to the settled users, it can be regarded as no fault and does not need to bear legal responsibility for the bad information on the platform. However, for obvious illegal information that should be known according to law, it has the obligation to monitor and exclude, especially after the victim reports the complaint or the public security organ notifies the platform that the illegal information has been known, if it is not deleted or blocked in time, it should bear legal responsibility.
In addition, the interim measures also stipulate that online ride-hailing drivers must have "no record of traffic accidents, dangerous driving, no record of drug use, no record of driving after drinking" and "no record of violent crime."
According to the Haidian court, there are omissions in the verification of registered drivers on the platform, and there are drivers with criminal convictions for malignant crimes and traffic accidents. For example, Yin, a registered driver of Didi Taxi, was sentenced to 4 years in prison for committing traffic accidents. In addition, there are also full-time drivers of Didi who are suspected of obstructing public affairs, drug trafficking, and gathering crowds to disrupt traffic order during operation. Some Hitch drivers also use the registration of other people’s luxury cars as a criminal method for subsequent fraud and rape.
Not only that, Didi has also excluded its legal liability through the standard clause of the user agreement, stipulating that "the Hitch platform does not provide rental, car use, driving or transportation services, but only provides information exchange and matching services between registered users of the platform. If a safety accident occurs during driving due to the owner’s reasons, the owner shall bear the corresponding compensation liability."
Speed up the removal of unqualified online car-hailing
Judge Jiang Nan believes that for a company deeply rooted in daily consumption and mastering massive data and transaction volume, Didi must come up with a thorough rectification plan to ensure the safety of passengers.
After the killing of the flight attendant, Didi issued a statement saying that as a platform, it had betrayed the trust of users and had an unshirkable responsibility, and announced a self-inspection. On May 11, Didi announced the progress of the self-inspection and shut down the Hitch platform business nationwide for a week for rectification.
On May 19, Didi Hitch service resumed. After entering the Didi APP Hitch page, the reporter saw that passengers need to complete six security measures such as registration identity verification, order receipt identity verification, privacy protection settings, and night travel protection to start the Hitch service. All personalized tags and comment functions have been offline, and the personal information and avatars of both parties have been changed to "visible only to themselves". All external avatars are the default virtual avatars of the system. After rectification, car owners must perform facial recognition before each order to maximize the possibility of private account changes. In addition, Hitch suspended the acceptance of orders departing between 22:00 and 6:00, and purchased insurance of up to 1.20 million yuan for drivers and passengers. Didi promised that in the relevant traffic accidents, public security and criminal cases and user disputes that occurred on the platform, it will never shirk its legal and social responsibilities.
Zhao Zhan told reporters that although it is difficult to determine the responsibility of Didi Hitch platform in law, it does not mean that Didi does not have the corresponding social responsibility and moral responsibility. For Hitch, that is, car sharing business, there are currently no direct regulations in many parts of the country. He suggested that the implementation rules for private passenger car sharing at the national level should be issued as soon as possible, and the regulatory authorities should also regulate Hitch and introduce relevant regulations in a timely manner.
Zhang Xinnian said that online car-hailing platforms should do their best to ensure operational safety, further strengthen safety precautions, and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of passengers. Passengers should also improve their own safety awareness, check the license plate and driver before getting on the bus, and get off the bus in advance if they encounter harassment or find potential threats during operation. If they encounter danger, they should respond rationally and call the police immediately if necessary.
In addition, Zhang New Year suggested that, in accordance with the "Interim Measures for the Management of Online Booking Taxi Business Services" and the "Measures for the Operation and Management of Online Booking Taxi Supervision Information Exchange Platforms" and other relevant provisions, the transportation management department should build and improve the government supervision platform, and realize the sharing of information with the online car-hailing platform, including but not limited to basic information of vehicles and drivers, service quality and passenger evaluation information, etc., strengthen the interactive management with the online car-hailing platform, and strengthen the market supervision of the online car-hailing platform companies, vehicles and drivers.
On May 21, Cai Tuanjie, deputy director of the Department of Transport Services of the Ministry of Transport, said that it will speed up the removal of unqualified online car-hailing, and the license will be revoked if there is no change in repeated penalties. The removal of unqualified vehicles and personnel will be accelerated to ensure that the vehicles and personnel registered on the platform are consistent with the actual vehicles and personnel, and have obtained corresponding qualifications. In addition, the construction of an integrity system will be promoted, and a joint punishment list will be implemented. For seriously dishonest enterprises and related legal persons and operating personnel, a blacklist system will be adopted. "To standardize private passenger car sharing, it is necessary to explore the establishment of a multi-party collaborative governance mechanism involving government departments, enterprises, and both parties involved in ride-sharing. Some city people’s governments that have not yet introduced private passenger car sharing should speed up the implementation of national-level reform opinions, issue detailed implementation rules for private passenger car sharing, and clarify the rights and obligations of all parties concerned. "Cai Tuanjie said.