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posted by on Monday March 20 2017, @07:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the golden-parachute-time dept.

As reported at Recode:

Jeff Jones, the president of Uber, is quitting the car-hailing company after less than a year. The move by the No. 2 exec, said sources, is directly related to the multiple controversies there, including explosive charges of sexism and sexual harassment.

Jones, said sources, determined that this was not the situation he signed on for, especially after Uber CEO Travis Kalanick announced a search for a new COO to help him right the very troubled ship.

That was not the reason for Jones' departure, sources said, even though it meant that Kalanick was bringing in a new exec who could outrank him. Instead, these sources said, Jones determined that the situation at the company was more problematic than he realized.

[...] (UPDATE: Jones also confirmed the departure with a blistering assessment of the company. "It is now clear, however, that the beliefs and approach to leadership that have guided my career are inconsistent with what I saw and experienced at Uber, and I can no longer continue as president of the ride sharing business," he said in a statement to Recode.)

Also at Bloomberg and The New York Times.

Third exec gone in one month.


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Zz9zZ on Monday March 20 2017, @11:41PM (2 children)

    by Zz9zZ (1348) on Monday March 20 2017, @11:41PM (#481850)

    It is more about the time it takes. At 50km/h with little traffic that does seem quite high, but how long does that trip really take with traffic etc? I don't know the average cost of operating the vehicle, but it is not insignificant. Also, you can't assume taxis are running at all times so prices have to be adjusted to account for dead time.

    Personally I think this is one of the issues with capitalism, it is all about how much you can screw your customers out of. There are decent and honest people who give fair prices, but then there are the greedy jerks who screw other people over. How do you know if the taxi ride is at a fair price? If it isn't you rarely have much of an alternative. How can anyone find out if the taxi service owners are colluding to set prices artificially higher?

    With capitalism the idea is that no single company gains too much of the market, thus they must compete otherwise the other business will siphon off their customers. In practice this doesn't work for a lot of products / services. I am not advocating communism, or a complete dropping of capitalism, but obviously the system is broken. As many have pointed out, rolling our taxes back to pre 50s-70s levels (not sure on exact dates) seemed to do a decent job at keeping large businesses in line. With higher tax brackets there is less incentive to squeeze every drop of profit possible; often done to the detriment of works, customers, or the environment, or even the company's own future welfare. If you only get to keep 5-10% of any profit gains (once you reach high levels of profit / income) then there isn't much motivation to bend the rules or treat people poorly. Basically it boils down to capitalism rewarding immoral behavior, and so many of the checks and balances against this have been destroyed.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 21 2017, @01:58AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 21 2017, @01:58AM (#481919)

    It is more about the time it takes. At 50km/h with little traffic that does seem quite high, but how long does that trip really take with traffic etc?

    More detail: I live in a small city and the airport is straight down the highway. No traffic whatsoever. 100 km/h the whole way. $35 bucks for 10km drive down the highway with no traffic. That's insane.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by In hydraulis on Tuesday March 21 2017, @03:06AM

      by In hydraulis (386) on Tuesday March 21 2017, @03:06AM (#481950)

      But who's really profiting here? Certainly not the driver. It's either the taxi company, or the airport itself via access / gate tolls.

      It's a bit disheartening to see bus / train fares spike at the airport as they do:

      --- $3.60 --- $3.60 --- $4.20 --- $4.20 --- $28.40 --- $4.20 --- $4.80 --- $4.80 ---