Pimp My Ride: MyCar driver allegedly tries to arrange solicitation of rider

What’s a local start-up to do when they have to differentiate themselves from the omnipotent behemoth (hi, Grab!) taking up most of the ride-share market in Malaysia?

For one driver, a passenger’s boyfriend is alleging that he took matters into his own hands this week, and personally messaged the young woman he had recently given a ride to with an indecent proposal.

He took to Twitter to post their (alleged!) exchange in all of its disgusting horror. Peep it at the jump:

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a screenshot of a cell phone

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Identifying himself as Chan, her recent driver, he asks if she would be interested  in doing “freelance” work, and by freelance he means sex work, which is pretty forward considering most of us just expect to be dropped off at the right place when we use a ride-hailing app.

Packaging it as a “no commitment” job, he then tells her that his “VVIP” Singaporean client is willing to pay her RM3,000 for her troubles. She can pick where dinner is, just as long as she has sex with whoever the aforementioned VVIP right after.

“U think about it,” Chan writes.

While we here at Coconuts KL firmly stand behind a sex worker’s right to chose their vocation, with all the safety that one could expect with any job, it’s not every day that an unsolicited offer comes the way of an unsuspecting passenger. One whose boyfriend really didn’t appreciate the offer:

Yue@perujosh

Is this a mycar driver or prostitution syndicate? I wanna raise awareness for girls out there to be careful. Also to the drivers, respect woman!! This shit happens to my girlfriend and she were scared, shaking and crying. Spread this to share awareness @Official_MyCar pls help

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12:37 AM - Jan 28, 2019

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Writing that his girlfriend was left scared, and feeling disrespected, he called on MyCar to take action and investigate the allegations.

MyCar has since responded with this statement:

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While such encounters are sometimes just another day in the life of everyday sexism for women, many worrying aspects from the app are hard to ignore, namely that the passenger’s phone number was not encrypted — something that Grab has been doing for the last couple of years.

Frequent MyCar users will also note that the app also allows for drivers to change the mode of payment mid-ride to their liking, regardless of whether the passenger has cash, resulting in great passenger distress, like this user late last year:

We’ve reached out to MyCar to address these issues — we’ll keep you updated on any developments.

This article, Pimp My Ride: MyCar driver allegedly tries to arrange solicitation of rider, originally appeared on Coconuts, Asia's leading alternative media company.