1. Didi Chuxing, Suspends Services
Didi Chuxing, the ride-hailing service that bought out Uber’s China business, is suspending its carpooling service after a recent murder by a driver. This is the second murder since May, both from Didi’s Hitch service, which is “a modern take on hitchhiking that lets a passenger ride for free with a driver headed in their direction.” The Didi safety center rep failed to file the complaint after another passenger flagged suspicious behavior with the same driver. Hitch has been suspended nationwide, however, Didi’s other carpooling and ride-hailing services are ‘safe’ for now. Didi is planning to launch a “co-supervisory process of operations,” inviting public members and experts to take part in.
(Source: TechCrunch)
2. Uber Brakes the Bike Business
Uber has decided to focus its business plan on electric scooters and bikes. They have predicted that users will start to make shorter journeys, especially once popularity increases for these modes of transportation. This move could hurt their profits as scooter and bike trips make less than the same trip a car could make. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said, “We are willing to trade off short-term per-unit economics for long-term higher engagement.” So far, they have Jump electric bikes in 8 U.S. cities and have partnered with electric scooter company, Lime.
(Source: BBC)
3. Musk Decides to Stay Public
After two weeks of speculation, Elon Musk has decided to keep Tesla public. The Tesla board of directors has agreed with the decision. This comes after his arbitrary tweet announcing the consideration to take the company private at $420/share, which prompted the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch an inquiry. Musk admitted that going private would be time-consuming and would lose loyal investors. However, Musk also responded with, “That said, my belief that there is more than enough funding to take Tesla private was reinforced during this process.”
(Source: NBC News)
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