Washington - On Tuesday evening, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick
sent every one of his employees - some 11 000 people - yet another apology.
It was in reaction to a six-minute dash cam video,
obtained and published Tuesday afternoon by Bloomberg, showing Kalanick in a
heated argument with one of his drivers.
The conversation began amicably enough with Kalanick and
driver Fawzi Kamel shaking hands. Kamel asked about reduced fares "in
general" across Uber's various offerings. (As Bloomberg noted, in 2012 an
Uber Black ride cost $4.90 per mile. Now it costs $3.75 per mile.)
Kalanick explained he lowered fares to remain competitive
against other ride-sharing companies, such as Lyft.
"We didn't go low-end because we wanted to,"
Kalanick said, referring to adding services like Uber Pool to the original Uber
Black. "We went low-end because we had to."
"We could go higher and more expensive," Kamel
countered.
Then he continued, thrusting his finger at Kalanick and
telling him that no one trusts him anymore.
Read also: Uber is projected to lose $3 billion in 2016
"I lost $97 000 because of you. I'm bankrupt because
of you. You keep changing every day," he said, adding, "You changed
the whole business."
"Bulls***," Kalanick said over Kamel's
shouting. "You know what? Some people don't like to take responsibility
for their own sh-t. They blame everything in their life on everyone else."
He climbed out of the car, spitting "good luck" behind him.
"Good luck to you too," Kamel said, adding that
Kalanick won't "go far."
The video quickly sparked outrage. One Twitter user summed
up the online ire, tweeting, "Ju[s]t watched video of CEO of #uber, and
all I can say is #deleteuber."
Full video at https://t.co/fwH0nLBZj8
No answers to my questions,no balls to say the true #ubered #deleteuber pic.twitter.com/HwDUGq4nDa
— MeGuinness (@MeGuinness) February 24, 2017
Kalanick's apology, also posted to Uber's website, began,
"By now I'm sure you've seen the video where I treated an Uber driver
disrespectfully. To say that I am ashamed is an extreme understatement."
The language then grows increasingly melancholy, stating
the incident "cannot be explained away." It continued: "It's
clear this video is a reflection of me - and the criticism we've received is a
stark reminder that I must fundamentally change as a leader and grow up. This
is the first time I've been willing to admit that I need leadership help and I
intend to get it."
It closed with Kalanick "profoundly"
apologizing to Fawzi and the "driver and rider community" as a whole.
Such language from the CEO suggested the apology was
inspired by more than simply the video. The past few months have not been kind
to company.
Twitter reaction
The biggest blow came in the form of a hashtag that
spurred genuine action. After President Donald Trump issued a travel ban
against seven predominately Muslim countries, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance
staged a strike at John F. Kennedy International Airport. About 30 minutes
after it began, Uber tweeted it was lifting surge prices at JFK.
Quickly, #DeleteUber trended on Twitter. Sparked by this,
some 200 000 people reportedly deleted the app in January alone (not too
difficult an action when its major competitor Lyft is available in most major
cities).
It didn't help matters that, in December, Kalanick had
joined Trump's economic advisory council. Finally, after the social media
campaign to boycott his company, Kalanick quit the council. In a memo to his
staff, he wrote, "joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of
the president or his agenda but unfortunately it has been misinterpreted to be
exactly that."
Mere weeks later, the company again found itself in an
unfortunate spotlight when former Uber engineer Susan Fowler Rigetti wrote a
blog post alleging systematic sexual harassment and workplace discrimination
against women at Uber.
Kalanick tweeted in response. "What's described here
is abhorrent & against everything we believe in. Anyone who behaves this
way or thinks this is OK will be fired." He added that there "can be
absolutely no place for this kind of behavior at Uber."
Investigation
He also hired former US Attorney General Eric Holder to lead
an investigation into these claims with the participation of Huffington Post
founder and Uber board member Arianna Huffington and the company's human
resources chief Liane Hornsey.
Somewhat buried by these stories were the company's
ongoing issues with self-driving cars.
In December, Uber was forced to pull a fleet of such cars
from San Francisco, just a week after deployment. The California Department of
Motor Vehicles deemed the service illegal as Uber didn't have the required
autonomous vehicle license.
During that week, though, one of Uber's autonomous Volvos
ran a red light, which was caught on video. The company originally claimed this
happened as a result of human error, as every car in the fleet cars also had
drivers onboard in case of emergency.
I think it is time to #deleteuber @travisk @Uber CEO is a pig and I won't support pigs. The culture is piggish & can't be supported. Buh bye
— Steven Skinner (@Sirslam) March 1, 2017
Later, internal documents obtained by the New York Times
showed the problem to be a mistake in the car's programming. One document
stated, "the mapping programs used by Uber's cars failed to recognize six
traffic lights in the San Francisco area."
Compounding Uber's woes was a lawsuit filed in the U.S.
District Court in San Francisco against the company last week. It alleged Uber
stole Google laser technology - called LiDAR - to build its autonomous fleet.
As The Washington Post's Michael Laris reported:
"Misappropriating this technology is akin to
stealing a secret recipe from a beverage company," according to a blog
post from Waymo, the self-driving company created by Google parent Alphabet.
"Waymo said the alleged far-reaching thievery -
which it said was led by a former employee and involved the surreptitious
downloading of 9.7 GB of confidential files and trade secrets - came to light
in an apparently errant email."
An Uber spokesperson said the company would "review
this matter carefully."
For all this, Uber's net revenue seems to continue
growing unchecked.