'I must fundamentally change and grow up'- Uber CEO.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, poses during the launch of its bike-sharing product, uberMOTO, in Hyderabad, India. AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A., File

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, poses during the launch of its bike-sharing product, uberMOTO, in Hyderabad, India. AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A., File

Published Mar 5, 2017

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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.

WASHINGTON POST

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