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.
Related Stories
From MotorAuthority.com:
Ride-sharing giant Uber sees a future where it not only has a fleet of self-driving cars offering rides to the public, but also self-driving trucks transporting goods on the highway.
Uber on Thursday announced the acquisition of Otto, an American startup with around 90 staff working on developing self-driving trucks. The announcement was made on the same day Uber announced a deal with Volvo to source additional test cars for its growing fleet of self-driving cars.
Otto co-founder Anthony Levandowski has been put in charge of all autonomous driving efforts at the combined firms and will report to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. Early last decade Levandowski developed the Ghostrider, a self-driving motorcycle that now sits in the Smithsonian. He was also on Google's self-driving car team.
Otto was only founded in January but much of its staff comes from more established firms including Apple, Google, Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] and Cruise Automation. Otto's goal isn't to start selling self-driving trucks but rather to develop technology that can be licensed to truck manufacturers or turned into kits that can be retrofitted to existing trucks to make them autonomous.
Also at theverge.com
The Intercept reports
A Federal judge in New York issued a nationwide temporary injunction [1], halting the implementation of President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration on Saturday night, blocking the deportation of travelers with valid visas detained at airports in the past 24 hours.
Judge Ann Donnelly, a United States District Court Judge in Brooklyn, issued the ruling at an emergency hearing on a lawsuit [2] filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups on Saturday, as Trump's executive order temporarily banning citizens of seven nations with Muslim majorities from entering the U.S. took immediate effect.
The judge ruled that the government must immediately stop deporting travelers from those nations, including refugees who already went through a rigorous vetting process, and provide a complete list of all those detained, immigrants rights lawyer Lee Gelernt told reporters in Brooklyn.
[Ed Note (martyb): Original text and links from The Intercept are reproduced here — to bypass indirections and Javascript use the following links.]
[1] Direct link to a PDF of the Emergency Motion for Stay of Removal (Case 1:17-cv-00480 Document 8 Filed 01/28/17).
[2] Direct link to a PDF of the Original ACLU Complaint (Case 1:17-cv-00480 Document 1 Filed 01/28/17).
Previously:
Breaking News: Immigration Ban Includes Green Card Holders
Susan Fowler, a former site reliability engineer for Uber and current engineer at Stripe, accused the company of rampant sexual harassment and human resources negligence in a blog post published today.
Fowler claims that on her first day out of training, she was solicited for sex by a superior on an internal company chat thread. She then immediately captured screenshots of the messages and sent them to Uber's human resources department. In a healthy organization, such a problem would have been quickly resolved. But Fowler alleges that the harassment only continued, preventing her from moving up within the company.
"Upper management told me that he 'was a high performer' and they wouldn't feel comfortable punishing him for what was probably just an innocent mistake on his part," explained Fowler in her post
At this point, Fowler says in her post that she was given a choice of remaining on the team and accepting, "a poor performance review," or moving to a different team.
[...] Though she didn't want to leave the role she felt she was best prepared to fill, she switched teams. Work continued, and while Fowler had settled into the new role she regularly had conversations with female employees who shared similar stories about HR negligence, even citing unacceptable experiences with the same superior that solicited her.
[...] Amid chaotic internal politics, Fowler attempted to transfer to a different department, but the company blocked her request. Citing strong performance, she couldn't understand why her request had been denied.
"I was told that 'performance problems aren't always something that has to do with work, but sometimes can be about things outside of work or your personal life,'" added Fowler in her post.
She ultimately decided to stay in the same role until her next performance review. But the frustration continued with a second reassignment rejection and a further explanation that her "review had been changed after the fact," and that she didn't show "signs of an upward career trajectory." As a result, she was shut out of a Stanford computer science graduate program sponsored by the company for high-achievers.
Source:
Uber secretly used software to help drivers evade law enforcement stings:
Uber's annus horribilis continued apace Friday, as it was hit with revelations of a secret program to evade law enforcement, the resignation of another top executive and more allegations of workplace discrimination.
The New York Times reported that for years Uber used a tool called Greyball to systematically deceive law enforcement officials in cities where its service violated regulations. Officials attempting to hail an Uber during a sting operation were "greyballed" – they might see icons of cars within the app navigating nearby, but no one would come pick them up. The program helped Uber drivers avoid being ticketed.
Greyball used geolocation data, credit card information, social media accounts and other data points to identify individuals they suspected of working for city agencies to carry out the sting operations, according to the Times. It was used in Portland, Oregon, Philadelphia, Boston, and Las Vegas, as well as France, Australia, China, South Korea and Italy.
They see me rollin' / They hatin' / Patrolling they tryna catch me drivin' Uber.
An Uber engineer accused of data theft against Google must privately explain the circumstances behind invoking his Fifth Amendment right to the judge in the case:
During a Wednesday court hearing, a federal judge said that if an Uber engineer accused of a massive data theft from his former employer is going to invoke his Fifth Amendment right to protect against self-incrimination and not hand over materials demanded as part of a recent subpoena and upcoming deposition, then he must at least explain himself privately to the judge.
"What I've told you is that you can submit the privilege log to me, in camera, without giving it to anyone else and I can evaluate it, which aspects, if any would be incriminating," US District Judge William Alsup said, addressing a lawyer representing the engineer, Anthony Levandowski, during the hearing. "I'm not ruling against the ultimate assertion of the privilege, but you've got to do more than just say in court, Fifth Amendment—you have to do a privilege log and go through the process."
The case pits Waymo against Uber, which in turn is in a tense situation with one of its own employees, Levandowski, the head of its self-driving division. Levandowski is now set to be deposed by Waymo lawyers this Friday at their San Francisco offices. He must also respond to a subpoena by handing over materials that he is accused of stealing— thousands of secret documents from his time with Waymo parent company, Google. On Wednesday, Judge Alsup quashed four of the six distinct items requested in the subpoena, but allowed first the most substantive, the allegedly "misappropriated materials," to stand. (The third item, "All communications between You and Uber between January 2015 and August 2016," will also remain.)
Uber's CEO Travis Kalanick has told staff that he is taking a break. Uber's board is also reallocating some of Kalanick's responsibilities:
There is no doubt that Travis Kalanick, the billionaire founder of the Uber lift-sharing platform, built a company that is one of the giants of Silicon Valley. However, recent months have seen him make a series of apologies for both his own behaviour and that of members of his leadership team. He has now told staff he is going to take some time away from the firm. He is set to have fewer responsibilities upon his return.
Meanwhile, a board meeting addressing sexual harassment at the company had its own sexist moment just minutes in, captured on audio and leaked to Yahoo! Finance:
While speaking, Huffington pointed out that Uber was adding a woman to its board, Wan Ling Martello.
"There's a lot of data that shows when there's one woman on the board, it's much more likely that there will be a second woman on the board," she said around six minutes into the recording.
"Actually what it shows is it's much likely to be more talking," Uber board member David Bonderman said.
"Oh. Come on, David," Huffington responded.
Also at NYT, TechCrunch, and The Verge.
Previously: Uber's Board is Meeting to Discuss CEO Kalanick Temporarily Stepping Down
Unsealed court filings in the Waymo vs. Uber case include texts between former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Anthony Levandowski, the engineer accused of stealing secrets from Waymo/Google:
On March 19, 2016, before Uber acquired Otto, Levandowski and Kalanick exchanged messages catching up on their recent "jam" session. The pair were apparently trying to prod an engineer, whose name is redacted in the filings.
"Internet, electricity, self driving cars and key things will always find a way," Levandowski texted Kalanick, linking to a YouTube clip from the 1987 movie "Wall Street." In the clip, the main character gives a famous speech of why "greed is good." "Here's the speech you need to give ;-)."
Kalanick briefly updated Levandowski on Uber's food delivery business, then wrote, "The way you keep China in check is showing up when they ask every once in a while."
But Uber was losing $1 billion a year in China, and by August, Uber sold its Chinese business to rival Didi Chuxing.
Kalanick was also eager to partner with Google as it sought to enter into the ride-hailing market, and dismissive of Tesla's autonomous mode safety claims.
The best exchanges:
9/19/2016 Levandowski: We're going to take over the world
9/19/2016 Levandowski: One robot at a time
10/7/2016 Kalanick: Down to hang this eve and mastermind some shit
Google parent company Alphabet is seeking at least $2.6 billion from Uber for allegedly stealing self-driving car trade secrets from Waymo:
Alphabet thinks Uber should pay $2.6 billion for allegedly stealing a single trade secret.
Alphabet is in court with Uber today to convince a judge to delay the Oct. 10 trial in its self-driving lawsuit against the ride-hail company. But during the hearing, an Uber attorney said that Alphabet is seeking $2.6 billion in damages for just one of the nine trade secrets the company is claiming a former Uber executive stole.
Before today's hearing, the amount of damages Alphabet wanted a court to award them was not public and had been redacted from court filings.
In its opposition to Alphabet's request for a trial delay, Uber claims Alphabet is simply asking for a "do-over" because its allegations that an executive stole files and brought them to Uber has weakened.
Also at Reuters, Ars Technica, Engadget, The Street, MarketWatch, and TechCrunch.
Uber will lose its license to operate inside London. The issue may be only a temporary setback since the license expires on September 30th and Uber can continue to operate in London while appealing the decision:
London's transportation agency dealt a major blow to Uber on Friday, declining to renew the ride-hailing service's license to operate in its largest European market. [...] "Uber's approach and conduct demonstrate a lack of corporate responsibility in relation to a number of issues which have potential public safety and security implications," the agency, Transport for London, said in a statement.
[...] In issuing its decision, Transport for London, which is responsible for the city's subways and buses as well as regulating its taxicabs, declared that Uber was not "fit and proper" to operate in the city — a designation that carries significant weight in Britain. "Fit and proper" is a benchmark applied across different sectors of business and the charitable organizations in the country to ensure that people or organizations meet the requirements of their industry or specialty. Tests typically assess factors like an individual or company's honesty, transparency and competence, though there is no formal exam. In Uber's case, Transport for London said it examined issues of how it dealt with serious criminal offenses, how it conducted background checks on drivers and its justification for a software program called Greyball that "could be used to block regulatory bodies from gaining full access to the app."
Opinion: London's Uber Ban Is a Big Brexit Mistake
The Waymo v. Uber jury trial is set to begin Monday and is expected to end during the week of February 19. It's not a matter of good vs. evil:
"The trial will be a trial on Waymo's claims of trade secret misappropriation, not a trial on Uber's litigation practices or corporate culture," Judge Alsup wrote on January 30.
[...] Alsup went on to say that both sides have engaged in "half-truths and other slick litigation conduct" and that Waymo, which has "whined—often without good reason—at every turn in this case," essentially needs to put up or shut up.
"To repeat, the central issue in this case remains whether or not Uber misappropriated Waymo's trade secrets, not whether or not Uber is an evil corporation," the judge continued. "Waymo's decision to devote so much time and effort to pursuing matters with so little connection to the merits raises the troubling possibility that Waymo is unwilling or unable to prove up a solid case on the merits and instead seeks to inflame the jury against Uber with a litany of supposed bad acts."
Also at The Verge and FT (paywalled).
Previously: Waymo v. Uber Continues, Will Not Move to Arbitration
Waymo's Case Against Uber "Shrinks" After Trade Secret Claim Thrown Out
Uber v. Waymo Trial Delayed Because Uber Withheld Evidence
A Spectator Who Threw A Wrench In The Waymo/Uber Lawsuit
Related: Uber Letter Alleges Surveillance on Politicians and Competitors
The Fall of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick
Waymo Orders Thousands More Chrysler Pacifica Minivans for Driverless Fleet
Uber's controversial self-driving truck division shuts down
Uber is shutting down its self-driving truck program, the company acknowledged on Monday. It's the latest example of Uber scaling back its self-driving technology efforts in the wake of a deadly Uber self-driving car crash in March.
Uber's self-driving truck program has been embroiled in controversy since Uber acquired the unit two years ago. The acquisition price was reportedly $680 million, though the actual cost may have been much less than that. Previously, it had been a startup called Otto, led by controversial ex-Waymo engineer Anthony Levandowski. Waymo sued Uber, arguing that Levandowski had taken Waymo trade secrets with him on the way out the door.
[...] "We've decided to stop development on our self-driving truck program and move forward exclusively with cars," said Eric Meyhofer, the leader of Uber's self-driving technology program, in a statement to The Verge. Personnel from the truck division will be folded into the company's self-driving car efforts.
Previously: Uber Buys Autonomous Truck Startup Otto
The Fall of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick
Uber Pulls Self-Driving Cars After First Fatal Crash of Autonomous Vehicle
Uber Sells Off Self-Driving and Flying Taxi Units
Uber sells its self-driving unit to Aurora
Uber's self-driving unit, Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), is being acquired by its start-up competitor Aurora Innovation, the companies announced Monday.
The deal, expected to close in the first quarter of 2021, values ATG at approximately $4 billion. The unit was valued at $7.25 billion in Apr. 2019 when Softbank, Denso and Toyota took a stake.
[...] Uber's co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick had viewed self-driving as an essential investment, saying in 2016 he believed the world would shift to autonomous vehicles. ATG had been a long-term play for Uber, but the unit brought high costs and safety challenges. Throughout the course of a pandemic-stricken year, Uber has made efforts to stem losses in its ride hailing business, control business costs -- including with major layoffs in the spring -- and to grow its delivery business.
Uber is also reportedly selling its flying taxi division to Joby Aviation, presumably putting an end to its involvement with the U.S. Army.
Uber has been scaling back its driverless car efforts since it caused the death of a pedestrian in 2018. Uber has never had a profitable quarter.
Also at NYT, Ars Technica, TechCrunch, and The Verge.
Previously: The Fall of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick
Uber Pulls Self-Driving Cars After First Fatal Crash of Autonomous Vehicle
Uber Shutting Down Self-Driving Truck Division
Uber Allegedly Ignored Safety Warnings Before Self-Driving Fatality
Will Car Ownership Soon Become "Quaint"?
Uber Freezes Engineering Hires Amid Mounting Losses
Statement from the Press Secretary Regarding Executive Grants of Clemency
Anthony Levandowski – President Trump granted a full pardon to Anthony Levandowski. This pardon is strongly supported by James Ramsey, Peter Thiel, Miles Ehrlich, Amy Craig, Michael Ovitz, Palmer Luckey, Ryan Petersen, Ken Goldberg, Mike Jensen, Nate Schimmel, Trae Stephens, Blake Masters, and James Proud, among others. Mr. Levandowski is an American entrepreneur who led Google's efforts to create self-driving technology. Mr. Levandowski pled guilty to a single criminal count arising from civil litigation. Notably, his sentencing judge called him a "brilliant, groundbreaking engineer that our country needs." Mr. Levandowski has paid a significant price for his actions and plans to devote his talents to advance the public good.
Wikipedia entry on pardon within the United States.
See also: Former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski among list of last-minute Trump pardons
Trump's last-minute pardons include Bannon, Lil Wayne and scores of others
Trump Reportedly Abandoned Pardons For Snowden And Assange
Trump declines to pardon Assange, Snowden, or 'Joe Exotic' – here's the 143 people he chose
Previously: Text Messages Between Uber's Travis Kalanick and Anthony Levandowski Released
The Fall of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick
Uber Shutting Down Self-Driving Truck Division
Ex-Uber Engineer Levandowski Pleads Guilty To Trade Secrets Theft
Uber Accuses Levandowski of Fraud, Refuses to Pay $179M Google Judgment
Ex-Googler Levandowski Gets 18 Months in Prison for Trade-Secret Theft
(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?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(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!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(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.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jelizondo on Friday January 19 2018, @06:38PM (6 children)
This guy pocketed $1.4 billion [businessinsider.com] after his fall...
Could I please, please, please at least humbly stumble?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday January 19 2018, @06:44PM
...right into the (San Francisco) gutter to die as a poor man?
Kalanick could live a more than comfortable retirement for the rest of his life. Assuming he doesn't become an immortal billionaire. And he could start or invest in many businesses. It's one hecc of a fall.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 19 2018, @06:53PM (3 children)
This is a good example of why wealth inequality is such a fucked up thing. It doesn't matter much these days how messed up someone is, if they can get rich all gets forgiven as they spread their money around. Why does he get to live like a king? For being a fucked up human being?
Come on uzzy and jmo, let's hear your platitudes about why we need to maintain this farce.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday January 19 2018, @07:28PM (2 children)
You reward the people who made you a lot of money, as an incentive for others to work with you and make you a lot of money.
The criteria that matters is "how much money", because the smart investor doesn't get caught up in the row about the person's flaws and shameful business practices.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday January 19 2018, @07:39PM
You correctly identify the reason such messed up people get so ridiculously rewarded. But it's still messed up.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday January 19 2018, @08:47PM
Which leads to the obvious question: Who should be caught up in the row about a person's shameful business practices? I've got a candidate: Government regulators and law enforcement. But no, that's big government, we can't have that.
And now you know why big businesses love all the "small government" talk: It means laws aren't being enforced, which means that they can more easily get away with crime.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Friday January 19 2018, @07:45PM
+1 insightfunny
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tangomargarine on Friday January 19 2018, @08:42PM (4 children)
This is the first I've heard of it, and may I say it's both hilarious and absolutely should be legal.
1) Uber has no responsibility to help law enforcement in an undercover operation targeting them, do they? This is like the 5th Amendment applied to business. If it was an above-the-board investigation then yes, they'd have to comply with law enforcement requests and whatnot.
2) I assume Uber can reserve the right to refuse its business to anyone.
3) The only way I can see this being illegal is depending on how they go about identifying who to ignore. But if it's just scraping publicly-available websites that sounds fine.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 3, Informative) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday January 19 2018, @10:24PM (1 child)
Which is why it should not be allowed to compete with services that must pick up "all" fares. Examples:
http://www.taxirights.gov.bc.ca/drivers.html [gov.bc.ca]
http://taxi.vic.gov.au/drivers/taxi-drivers/driver-rights-and-responsibilities [vic.gov.au]
http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/downloads/pdf/rule_book_current_chapter_54.pdf [nyc.gov] section 54-20
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday January 19 2018, @10:31PM
Not to mention (having just thought of it) that refusing services because the person is a regulator.... I'd construe that as an attempt to avoid regulation and therefore a form of obstruction of justice.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 19 2018, @10:28PM (1 child)
My question is, since police are most closely associated with the color blue, why wasn't this called "blueballing"?
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday January 20 2018, @01:54AM
Because, occasionally, some people *did*, happily, get all the way to their destination.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20 2018, @03:07AM (1 child)
The Kalanick/Kamel so-called "heated argument" seems really blown out of proportion. Go watch the video for yourself and see how you feel. Yes, they were arguing, but it's not like they went ape shit on each other.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday January 20 2018, @06:07AM
It still earned the man a cool $200k. 💰
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]