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The Fall of Travis Kalanick Was a Lot Weirder and Darker Than You Thought
A year ago, before the investor lawsuits and the federal investigations, before the mass resignations, and before the connotation of the word "Uber" shifted from "world's most valuable startup" to "world's most dysfunctional," Uber's executives sat around a hotel conference room table in San Francisco, trying to convince their chief executive officer, Travis Kalanick, that the company had a major problem: him.
[...] [A] top executive excused herself to answer a phone call. A minute later, she reappeared and asked Kalanick to step into the hallway. Another executive joined them. They hunched over a laptop to watch a video that had just been posted online by Bloomberg News: grainy, black-and-white dashcam footage of Kalanick in the back seat of an UberBlack on Super Bowl weekend, heatedly arguing over fares with a driver named Fawzi Kamel. "Some people don't like to take responsibility for their own shit!" Kalanick can be heard yelling at Kamel. "They blame everything in their life on somebody else!"
As the clip ended, the three stood in stunned silence. Kalanick seemed to understand that his behavior required some form of contrition. According to a person who was there, he literally got down on his hands and knees and began squirming on the floor. "This is bad," he muttered. "I'm terrible." Then, contrition period over, he got up, called a board member, demanded a new PR strategy, and embarked on a yearlong starring role as the villain who gets his comeuppance in the most gripping startup drama since the dot-com bubble. It's a story that, until now, has never been fully told.
The article discusses a number of Uber and Kalanick scandals/events, including:
- The #DeleteUber movement following Uber being accused of breaking up an airport taxi strike (which was in protest of President Trump's executive order restricting travel from Muslim countries), as well as Kalanick's decision to join President Trump's business advisory council (and later leave it).
- Susan Fowler's blog post recounting sexual harassment at Uber, and the hiring of former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder to investigate the claims.
- The revelation of Uber's Greyball system, which was used to avoid picking up law enforcement and taxi inspectors.
- Uber's purchase of self-driving truck startup Otto, which eventually led key Uber investor Google (Waymo) to sue Uber, seeking billions in damages.
- Kalanick's "inexplicable" support of Anthony Levandowski, who he called his "brother from another mother", even after Levandowski stopped defending Uber in the Waymo v. Uber case.
- Kalanick's apology to the taxi driver Fawzi Kamel, which amounted to a $200,000 payoff.
- A visit to a Seoul escort-karaoke bar that resulted in an HR complaint and a report in The Information.
- Uber's president for Asia-Pacific Eric Alexander obtaining a confidential medical record of passenger who was raped by an Uber driver in Delhi, India. Alexander, Kalanick, and others discussed a theory that their Indian competitor Ola faked/orchestrated the rape.
- Kalanick making his presence known during a "leave of absence" by trying to maintain control over the company and its board.
- Arianna Huffington promoting her wellness company's products while acting as Kalanick's apparent proxy on the board.
- The new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's response to the city of London revoking Uber's operating license.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 19 2018, @06:35PM (8 children)
I can confirm that whereas opinions of Travis were a mixed bag, Dara is pretty much universally liked. He's very serious about doing things the right way, and him taking the initiative to address the previously-under-covers 2016 leak gets my utmost respect.
I got in just a month before TK stepped out, shortly before the Holden report, and Liane Hornsay and Frances Frei joined. Since then, the company implemented a crisis hotline where you can anonymously report abuse, it ran courses about what's considered inappropriate behavior, and there's a huge overhaul going on with regards to the cultural values and the performance appraisal process. Frances was particularly vocal about the inadequacy of the top 3 bottom 3 system that was in place before.
I mentioned this before elsewhere, but when Liane had a board member step down the afternoon after he made a sexist comment in a all-hands meeting, it spoke volumes about how serious they were about setting new norms at Uber.
I also recall seeing an email a few months ago that basically said that whoever was working on any competitive intelligence project involving spying was to halt all further work effective immediately. The culture of doing things right is definitely becoming a thing, even if the execs still occasionally slip a hand down your shorts.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday January 19 2018, @06:56PM (6 children)
I hope you meant "industry execs" and not just "Uber execs", heheh.
Even if the culture of the company has changed, the company has been massively devalued [soylentnews.org] (or corrected) and is still burning a lot of money. Lyft picked up enough traction to gain a much more secure second place than it would have had Uber/TK not made massive and totally avoidable mistakes. Uber, Lyft, Google, and others all seem to be rushing to establish a driverless ridehailing service which could be very profitable but will require a lot of capital to purchase cars that were previously purchased by drivers (except for the few that participated in some financing program). Maybe the automakers will be in a better position than Uber, Lyft, and Google/Waymo to profit from the transition to driverless.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by tftp on Friday January 19 2018, @07:22PM (5 children)
Let's stop for the moment and think how exactly automakers will benefit from this. Currently they sell 1 car to every family, every 10 years, on average. Some buy used, other buy several new. But today the most important task of the car is to sit still while its owner is working or at home. Few spend more than 1 hour per day driving.
A network of affordable automated taxis, dispatched by Luft or the like, will make personal cars unnecessary - primarily in cities, where most people live. The automakers will be producing a bit more expensive robot cars, but the market of personal vehicles will almost disappear. The reduction of production will stop many conveyors and will result in layoffs. One automatic car can replace many personal ones, especially with automated carpooling (then cost of the trip falls even lower.) Removal of manual vehicles from roads will make them safer, but automakers will have to reduce production heavily.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday January 19 2018, @08:14PM (3 children)
The automakers have shown no signs of trying to squash the driverless car. They are building their own.
If the user's cost per mile goes down, it could better compete against public transportation (or not, if bus fare goes down instead of up).
You could also see the driverless car being used extensively by the elderly baby boomers [nytimes.com]. They may be inclined to buy their own instead of hailing a new one every time they need it.
Not saying you're wrong but the automakers will get creative to try to hold onto as much money as possible. How about a guerrilla marketing campaign sending drunkards to puke and piss in as many shared driverless cars as possible, with viral videos encouraging people to own their own personal driverless cars?
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(Score: 2, Interesting) by tftp on Friday January 19 2018, @08:31PM
As a card is necessary to even open the door of an auto taxi, the cameras will record the damage, and the stream of vandals will dry out very quickly. Money is one thing, but being blacklisted is worse. There is also a strong financial incentive : the auto cars will be more expensive, and being electric, they won't work for everyone who lives in a multi-story building (which is the most clean, ecologically.) Installation of chargers everywhere will be very expensive, as they may overload existing cables. The public buses may merge with the auto fleet of taxis.
There is one important thing to remember: the automakers will retain the profit, but the companies will be forced to shed factories and workers. It's largely predestined, however - just weird that it happens so fast.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20 2018, @08:25AM (1 child)
Bed-Bugs! Bed-Bugs in the Car!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday January 20 2018, @08:29AM
Mutant migrant bed bugs with leprosy!
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(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday January 20 2018, @11:40AM
Your implicit assumption: that "1 hour per day driving" can be shifted at any time of the day, sharing/redelegating the car for other needs results in a continuous uniform use of any "affordable automated taxi".
Assumption breaking down - "rush hour". That "1 hour per day driving" happens mostly during the rush hour. Car pooling for small cars might help, but not that much as you think.
On the other hand, a combination of driverless taxis with "driverless public transport buses" might - but then I don't think the major costs of operating a bus company goes into drivers salary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20 2018, @06:55PM
"after he made a sexist comment in a all-hands meeting"
i hope you mean overtly offensive/raunchy/truly nsfw and not just something mildy sexist (old fashioned?) that ran afoul of some man hater's naughty words list.