Shanghai (ZXZC)- China's Didi Chuxing (DiDi) said it is to resume the hitch, its P2P car-hailing service, in seven major Chinese cities on November 20, 2019, more than a year after the service was suspended in wake of two murder cases.

According to DiDi's announcement, the trial operation will be carried out in Harbin, Taiyuan, Shijiazhuang, Changzhou, Shenyang, Beijing and Nantong in the first place.

The relaunched service will have improved safety features, as well as more rigorous driver/passenger verification and rating mechanisms. The trial will start with trips under 50 kilometers in metro areas between 5:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. for female users, while for male passengers, the available time will be extended to 11:00 p.m., according to DiDi. Information service fees will be waived during the trail operation.

Originally launched in 2015, the hitch service allowed private car owners who registered on DiDi’s platform to pick up passengers heading the same director. To most commuters, it boasted many advantages such as abundant vehicle resources and affordable prices.

However, the horrible deaths of two female passengers last year landed the ride-hailing giant in hot water. Under the huge pressure from public criticism, DiDi shut the business to hunt safety loopholes out, and do remedy and improvements. The massive safety review and product revamp certainly costed DiDi a huge amount of money, notably the company hasn't been profitable yet.

DiDi also said the restarted hitch will be a testbed for a women's safety program, which is expected to roll out to other services. Key features include enhanced risk analysis, alert and intervention models that identify high-risk scenarios and trip anomalies, and a new in-app Safety Assistant that shows more detailed information on drivers and passengers, and offers real-time support from safety specialists.