Mapping/"Car Hailing" Services in China

[Randy W]

For online or cell phone maps, AutoNavi or AMap at http://ditu.amap.com/ seems to be the source for Chinese maps, including roads that are still under construction, roads that are temporarily barricaded, and even trails within some parks. It seems more up-to-date even than Baidu. Updates aren't propagated to Google for about a year afterward.

 

I mention that because now they're going into the ride-hailing business.

 

We've used Didi-Chuxing here in Yulin - NEVER had to wait more than THREE minutes. It comes in handy when you find yourself away from the bus lines (or not wanting to WAIT half an hour), or just want to save on parking fees. Going to Yuntian Gong, the parking fee would have been ¥10, Didi was ¥6. The city bus would have left us on the wrong side of the road.

 

From Sixth Tone

 

6 days

Alibaba’s AutoNavi Launches Car-Hailing Service

A major map app has jumped into the cutthroat ring of China’s ride-hailing industry. AutoNavi, a navigation service provider owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba, debuted its services in Chengdu and Wuhan on Tuesday, the company told Sixth Tone.

Unlike ride-hailing market leader Didi Chuxing, AutoNavi says it won’t charge commissions on drivers’ earnings.

Didi enjoyed a brief monopoly after it acquired Uber’s China operations in 2016, but that soon ended as Meituan-Dianping — an app that offers consumer services from take-out delivery to movie tickets — rolled out its own car-hailing services last year. Analysts believe that more players will trigger another subsidy war, as in the early days of the sector when companies fought to offer drivers and customers the best deals.

 

 

[Randy W]

from Abacus

 

7 things you need to know about Didi’s carpool crisis

Public fury in China after second female passenger is raped and killed

For the second time in three months, a female passenger has been raped and killed while using Didi Chuxing’s Hitch service. The function has now been suspended, and Didi vows to conduct an internal assessment. Here’s what you need to know.

 

You can hail a taxi, get a chauffeur-driven car or even rent a car that you have to drive yourself. Launched in 2015, Hitch is one of Didi’s many services, allowing you to carpool with other people -- it matches private car owners with commuters heading to the same direction. Carpoolers pay the driver a fee calculated by the app, which is generally cheaper than a regular taxi ride.

HITCH IS REALLY POPULAR

During this year’s Lunar New Year travel rush, Didi claimed more than 7 million people took advantage of Hitch. The longest ride was said to be nearly 1,500 miles long -- about the same distance between Miami and Boston.

BUT IT’S NOT SUBJECT TO CHINA’S RIDE-HAILING REGULATIONS

As a carpooling service, Hitch isn’t covered by national rules which, among other things, require taxis to install an emergency alert system and a recording device with geolocation. Without outside rules, it’s largely up to Didi to decide how to protect both carpool drivers and passengers.

TWO PASSENGERS HAVE BEEN KILLED WHILE USING HITCH

In May, a man stole his father’s Hitch driver account and went on to kill a female passenger. It was found that the app’s facial recognition system failed to work, allowing the man to impersonate a driver. Then on Friday, another woman was raped and killed by a Hitch driver -- one day after a female passenger complained about him to Didi. The company admitted that it did not investigate the complaint.

 

. . .

 

Didi’s troubles have caught the government’s attention. China’s police and transport ministry said the company has “unshirkable responsibility” over Friday’s killing. And the National Development and Reform Commission said on Monday it plans to expand the country’s growing social credit system to the transport sector.

 

[Randy W]

. . . and NOW

 

from Abacus

 

A state-backed ride-hailing startup is challenging Didi on safety

 

T3 Chuxing thinks internet-connected cars and facial recognition will help it take on China’s ride-hailing king

 

The latest company to join the fray is T3 Chuxing. The company was started by three major state-owned car makers -- FAW Group, Dongfeng Motor and Changan Automobile -- and it seeks to attract users by promising higher safety standards.

Since it’s owned by car markers, the company has its own fleet of cars that it can cram full of any features it sees fit. This is markedly different from how traditional ride-hailing services like Didi and Uber operate. They allow drivers to use their own cars on those platforms.

It’s not just car makers who are backing T3 Chuxing, though. It’s also getting support from China’s two large tech behemoths, Tencent and Alibaba. Those companies will reportedly support T3 Chuxing with cloud computing, mapping and payment services.

. . .

By using its own systems installed in its own vehicles, T3 hopes its security measures are more reliable.

. . .

Even if this all sounds good, though, T3 isn’t ready to take on Didi just yet. The service just rolled out this week, and T3 has only deployed 1,000 cars so far in the city of Nanjing. It plans to have 20,000 cars on the road by the end of this year and millions more by 2025.