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Trump-Style Tactics Finally Stopped Working For Uber (buzzfeed.com)
BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith describes a three-year-old meeting that Uber held -- which saw several influencers including actor Ed Norton among attendees -- as the beginning of the ride-hailing company's long slow meltdown. Later today, the company is expected to announce that its CEO Travis Kalanick would be temporarily stepping away, and his closest lieutenant is all set to hand his resignation. On Sunday, the company held a board meeting, which according to several journalists, lasted for nearly seven hours. The meeting capped a difficult stretch for the ride-hailing company, which is trying to weather an investigation into its workplace culture, a lawsuit by Google parent Alphabet over the alleged theft of self-driving car trade secrets, a federal probe into its business practices, and the recent departures of top executives. Back to Ben: At the dinner (which took place three years ago), Emil Michael, the right hand of CEO Travis Kalanick, heatedly complained to me about the press. The company, he told me, could hire a team of opposition researchers to fight fire with fire and attack the media -- specifically to smear a female journalist who has criticized the company. I suggested to him that this plan wouldn't really work because the story would immediately become a story about Uber behaving like maniacs. "Nobody would know it was us," Michael responded. "But you just told me!," I replied. [...] Instead of making any meaningful changes, Uber simply pressed on for years. It found both continued growth and accumulating scandals. Many of its crises, like those remarks to me, were tinged with misogyny, whether sexual harassment of its engineers or pulling a rape victim's medical files. After one of those engineers, Susan Fowler, stepped forward with a blog post detailing systemic sexual harassment and discrimination -- a post that was followed up by a series of devastating stories by The New York Times, Recode, and others -- the company invited former Attorney General Eric Holder to lead an internal investigation. Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Michael is set to resign, and Reuters reported Kalanick will take a leave of absence ahead of what's expected to be a deeply damning Holder report. (Kalanick is also coping with a family tragedy.) They will leave having built the most valuable private company in the world. But it is a company whose cultural darkness is inseparable from its place as the icon of the tech boom. Uber -- and the boom -- have been defined both by massive new conveniences and by a corporate culture that is aggressive, paranoid, and dismissive of, in particular, complaints from women; a culture of enemies lists and cavalier approaches to the law. Emil Michael told Uber employees Monday that he has left the company.
Slashdot editors, I don't get the focused vendetta against Uber here. You really, really seem overwhelmed with butthurt on this topic. "Trump-style tactics?" Seriously?? I've never even used Uber, have no real dog in the race, but somebody clearly needs an intervention.
Someone please remind me why BuzzFeed is being treated like a legitimate news agency? Their click-bait posts were sometimes funny, but their news is almost always biased and poorly done. This headline and story is a great example. I assume when they launched their "news" agency they just borrowed content writers from their existing pool of people and called them journalists. "Trump-style"? Really? It's about Uber and they take shot after shot at Trump. Then have the nerve to basically call Fox News all liars. The article writer, Ben Smith, is the "editor-in-chief" and to have this incoherent drivel coming from the guy at the top says all that needs to be said about BuzzFeed "News".
There may be good reporting in here but the Trump bashing shows how petty they are. I want neutral reporting.
>> fight fire with fire and attack the media -- specifically to smear a female journalist who has criticized the company
Hmmm...that's been the Clinton couple's bread-and-butter for decades. (Why do you think she was the only "major" candidate for the Democratic nod last time?) Trump's a fast learner, but he's got a ways to go to catch up.
But, you know.....the people getting those nice, convenient rides at reasonable prices, couldn't care less about all this.
Hey, it keeps me from drinking and driving, I love the service and use it constantly. What they do at corporate is their problem, I really don't care and I'd dare say most of their customers don't either...if they even know about it at all.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Yep, who cares if their vehicles are powered by a forsaken child, out of sight, out of mind!
That's why sweatshops in Asia, Mexico, and Africa exist, because you don't have to see it. Heck, you don't care that much about polluted water in Michigan. Or prescription drug overdoses in West Virginia.
How did flamebait from buzzfeed ever get posted to the front page of Slashdot?
Uber will eventually die on its own, because it is unsustainable.
As soon as everyone realizes that fact that most Uber drivers actually LOSE MONEY when you figure in the low rates they pay people combined with the total cost of driving for them (insurance, gas, auto maintenance, etc) most honest figures come up with either less than minimum wages or you are actually losing money on the deal.
Uber is a scam.
-- Given enough time and money, Microsoft will eventualy invent UNIX.
But, you know.....the people getting those nice, convenient rides at reasonable prices, couldn't care less about all this.
An awful lot do. As you say, many (perhaps most) aren't even really aware of how disastrously awful the company is, but plenty of them, once they find out, stop using Uber.
Uber's problem is they circumvent all the legal protections (mandatory insurance for driver,car & unemployment, minimum wage laws, health care,etc, etc) by illegally declaring their employees contractors. When cities fought back by investigating Uber they obstructed justice by dodging police with a complex algorithm.
Uber breaks social and legal contracts left and right. They're competitive edge is that they got away with it when everyone else doing it got shut down.
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