Now, let Siri book Ola for you

NEW DELHI: Transportation app Ola has rolled out its latest update for iOS 10 users that will now allow iPhone and iPad users to ask Siri, Apple's virtual assistant, to book cabs for them.

The update, which also includes Apple Maps integration, marks Ola's growing focus on making cab booking even more accessible and convenient for iPhone and iPad users in India, Ola said in a statement.

"Using just their voice, iPhone and iPad users running iOS 10 can simply say, 'Hey S ..

Source:-economictimes
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Mahindra-Ola tie-up set to shape future vehicle design

Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd's tie-up with domestic ride-sharing giant Ola will not only drive car sales, but also influence and shape the design of its vehicles in the future, Chairman Anand Mahindra said on Thursday.

Mahindra said automakers will need to adapt and design cars differently in the future by building cars better suited to the needs of the sharing economy, so as to capitalize on the rapid rise in ride-sharing popularity both domestically and overseas.

Source:-reuters
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Rape fallout: West Bengal Govt puts 5,000 applications for Ola permits on hold, wants data on drivers

Adhikari said Ola operators will be required to submit data of all drivers working under them.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Adhikari said, “We have clearly given Ola cab operators a condition. They have to submit to us data of all the drivers on board with them. All the drivers must have a background clearance certificate issued by the local police station. If not, we might cancel the license of Ola in the near future.”

He further added that 5,000 proposals from Ola requesting permits were put on hold. “We will not issue any new permit to Ola until they satisfy us by fulfilling the criteria set by the transport department.”
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Ola had received a temporary license to operate in Bengal around June. The state transport department issued a showcause notice to Ola post the incident.

A senior transport department official said, “The authentication of residential addresses, educational and criminal records is typically outsourced to third-party background verification companies by cab operators in India. Outside India, every taxi company requires drug screening and live-scan fingerprinting at the local police department before issuing a taxi driver permit.”

A source from a cab service provider in Kolkata said that the agencies usually take between seven and 10 days to give a report, and charge between Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 per candidate.

“It is the responsibility of the car owner as well to cross-check the background of the driver,” a police officer said. In the recent case, a minor girl was abducted, gangraped and then was murdered in an Ola cab that belonged to a different man, who in turn had hired Guddu Singh to drive it. “Getting a good driver is the biggest challenge, since most of them have migrated from smaller towns, and do not have a fixed residential address. In most cases, they do not have any proof of residence as mandated by authorities to issue a Police Clearance Certificate. It is difficult to establish all other addresses a person has resided in the country over previous years in the absence of residential proof or documentation. One has to rely on the applicant to disclose the addresses in order to check criminal records in all those police stations across the country,” said Mahendra Kumar Singh, a cab owner.

The system in which background checks have become just a formality needs to be changed, transport officials said, adding that it is important to carefully monitor, assess and report the methodology behind background checks to ensure there are no gaps.

“It looks like all these firms want someone to shift the blame in case of an unfortunate incident. I am shocked that police couldn’t stop a moving car where a girl was being raped. I was even more shocked to know that Guddu Singh, the accused, is a known criminal and yet managed to get a clearance certificate. This shows how things work here,” said Nidhi Shaw, who no longer uses app-based cab services after being harassed by a driver.

Guddu was arrested in a robbery case in 2013, and had been driving cabs for Ola since his release around two months ago.

A tea seller at Khidderpore, where Guddu had been staying, said, “He is drunk most of the time. He had a bad image in the locality since he is often found passing lewd comments on girls. He has been involved in many small crimes since he was 11. I don’t know much, but he was also in jail for some time.”



Source:-indianexpress
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Drunk Ola drivers gangrape, kill minor in Kolkata: Accused arrested, body recovered

In a horrifying incident, a 12-year-old girl was reportedly gangraped and strangled by two men in an Ola cab in Kolkata on Wednesday. According to reports, the body was found near a canal.

The accused have been arrested and according to police sources, the drivers confessed to picking up the girl from a footpath when they were drunk, CNN-News18 reported.

This is not a solitary incident which brings into question the safety and security of taxis run by cab aggregators like Ola and Uber but this is the first time that such a heinous crime has been reported in Kolkata.

According to Hindustan Times, Shankar Shaw and Guddu Singh told the police that they picked up the minor after they were drunk and were looking for some "merriment."

After killing her, Shaw and Singh threw her body into a canal below the Park Circus flyover. “Around 5 AM we received information that a girl was picked up in a car. From traffic control room the number of the car was established,” Hindustan Times quoted a Kolkata Police officer as saying.

In December 2015, an Ola driver had raped a woman passenger in Delhi, according to this Firstpost article. The driver stopped the vehicle at a deserted location and raped the woman in the car, threatening to kill her if she told anyone.

In May, 2016 a Belgian national was allegedly molested by an Ola cab driver in Delhi.

Uber has been under the scanner since can driver Shiv Kumar Yadav raped a woman executive in Delhi on 5 December. According to the police, the woman had dozed off on the back seat of the car, and she later woke up to find that the car had stopped at a secluded spot. When she tried to raise an alarm, the driver is said to have assaulted and raped her.

Source:-firstpost
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India ride-hailing firm Ola sideswiped as Uber, Didi team up in China

Didi Chuxing's acquisition of Uber's China business last week reshapes the landscape in Asia's growing ride-hailing sector, and leaves India's Ola more vulnerable to attack by Uber in its $12 billion home market.
Four months ago, Ola executives met with Didi hoping the Chinese firm would invest fresh capital to help it fight Uber Technologies Inc which, with its deeper pockets, has made rapid inroads into India.
They were told Didi wanted first to sort out its own challenges in China, said a person with direct knowledge of Ola's plans. Didi and Uber have raised and spent billions of dollars in a discount slugfest to win drivers, passengers and market share in China.
Didi, now worth around $35 billion, last year invested about $30 million in Ola, which is also backed by Japan's SoftBank Group (9984 T), and the two are allies in an anti-Uber group that also includes U.S.-based Lyft and Southeast Asia-focused Grab.
"This (Didi/Uber China) deal changes the dynamics of how they (Didi) will invest in India," said the person, who didn't want to be named because the discussions were private. If Didi invests more in Ola, it's effectively betting against Uber, its new partner in China, the person said.
It's not clear whether Didi would provide equity or debt to Ola, which has raised around $1.3 billion in funding and is valued at over $5 billion. SoftBank Capital, Ola's key investor, faces its own financial issues and is selling assets to raise cash and reduce debt, which may pose another fundraising challenge for Ola, which was aiming to raise another $1 billion this year.
Ola did not respond to an email request for comment. Didi said in an email that it will focus in the coming months on "ensuring smooth integration internally." It did not comment on its meeting with Ola. Didi has no immediate overseas investment plans, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
The stakes are high in India, already one of the world's fastest growing taxi markets. Ola and Uber have burnt through investors' money and clashed in legal battles over alleged dirty-tricks tactics and pricing.
After the Didi deal, Uber is even more focussed on India, which it has previously called its No. 2 priority overseas market, doubling down on resources, staffing and technology deployed there, said two people familiar with Uber's plans, one of whom is based in the United States.
MISSION INDIA
Ola, founded by two graduates from India's premier technology institute, commands half of the country's taxi market as of end-June in terms of the number of cars registered on its platform, according to Counterpoint Research, with Uber on around 30 percent market share, and catching fast.
Uber has previously launched a bike taxi and autos service in India - a sign that it wants to localize transport options and a lesson from China where it focussed on privately-owned cars in big cities, where car ownership has historically been low.
Source:-reuters
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