Ah, so much to apologize for, lately. Like the entire business model where the people working can never dig themselves out of the hole of having been maneuvered into assuming the company’s operating costs. Oh, wait, he’s not apologizing for that.
Also, I agree with @Shuck, the post could definitely use the “Christ What an asshole” tag
Well, since I’m anonymous and don’t use Uber, Kalanick can’t smear me by revealing my travel history.
Also appropriate: Late stage capitalism!
Why is this flagged? @Falcor ?
I’d like to apologize to the community. What I should have said was, Christ, what a complete and utter Randian asshole. I’m sorry. I need commenting help and I intend to get it.
I don’t expect any credit to be given to this person in particular. The guy can frakk off, as far as I am concerned.
I’m more interested if this apology can be read as a personal apology in his function as a CEO.
Your comparison to celebrities going to rehab might be worth pondering, but that would require just personal failure, not failure in his function. But his wording seems to couple both. And this might be a first for anyone in the tech sector, or am I wrong in this? I can’t remember Dorsey or Zuckerberg doing something like that, neither Andreesen, Thiel, Gates, Jobs, or any other of the tech “entrepreneurs”. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Believability aside, this feels almost human.
You get a load for a car like this, you are stuck with TRYING to make the money back or selling it at a huge loss. Sounds like he tried to see if he could make a go of it.
Businesses go south all the time. I’ve had a failed business in my past that took me down a few notches! And it was my responsibility for it failing. INTERNALLY, I had plenty of blame to go around. I could identify two sources of failure that were because of other people. My fault for dealing with them in the first place, but when I confront them over this – they’d be complete fuckwads to tell me WELL IT WAS YOUR FAULT FOR TRUSTING ME, TAKE SOME GOD DAMN PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
So was it his fault for getting in over his head? Yes. Did he have the right to tell this fuckwad off? Yes.
I can’t seem to unflag @shuck’s comment. @codinghorror, not sure why that is the case.
All fixed!
I bet his passenger star rating is 1 (until he forces some IT dude to change it for him)
Leadership help: new CEO.
It’s tech-bro libertarianism.
I really sympathise but everything you have just said is why I won’t ever use Uber or Lyft.
There was a time not too long ago that being a cabbie was a profession. It’s hard work, you have to deal with arseholes all the time and it’s generally a fairly thankless (but quite essential) job.
The thing is though, that’s why these jobs have had traditionally strong unions in almost every market where licensed taxis were a thing, until the likes of Uber and Lyft came along. Yes, that meant a ridiculously high barrier to entry for most people but it also meant that it was a job that could support a family, because a skilled and qualified workforce is always going to be able to dictate their own terms.
I realise that I’m apparently holding on to outmoded ideas here but if paying an extra $5 to get home means that I don’t support the outsourcing of yet another industry to rapacious free marketeers, then so be it.
I wish the best of luck to you with Lyft but from where I’m sitting, they’re just not big enough to be arseholes yet. Without a union, there’s nothing protecting you from being exploited in exactly the same way as Uber drivers.
“I’m sorry I got recorded and therefore caught.”
There are several big differences between being a cabbie and ride share. For instance, I can work for whomever I want without the company telling me I can’t – with a cab, you are pretty much renting the cab from the company and have to pay back the rental BEFORE you get paid. Yeah yeah, semantics can say the same about both.
Unions were in place not just to fight against the bosses, but against the cities they were in, and other taxi organizations. In NYC where the average medallion cost $1.5M a few years ago and were untouchable by the common person. Which meant renting from a company. Now, medallions are at $0.5M as a result of Uber/Lyft. Who is hurting? The big companies…not the drivers. The drivers more often than not drive a ride share on their own time with their own cars theses days.
Beyond that, cabbies used the unions to keep people out. Oh? You want to drive through London? Well here is a test that will take two years to study for and will be out of date by the time you test, but please know every side street and alley way at 98% or you fail even if GPS is almost always faster.
Businesses die. Automation takes over. I keep shifting careers to keep ahead of the curve, why shouldn’t anyone else. I have a VERY comfy day job that pays more than I should ever need…and yet? Toys aren’t cheap. And I’m trying to get into investing, which I can do if I don’t have to worry about spending my normal wages. Guess what? I’m still averaging $38 an hour even doing Lyft (I keep a spreadsheet). I do believe we need a union, and I believe that we need more governance outside of these companies where we can actually have a say in the future. But we still do well – even if its hard to bet on the future. Hell, if I knew I could guarantee these wages, I’d quit my day job and never have to look at my diplomas on the wall or sit through a dozen meetings just to hear people hear themselves. I’m all about these sorts of jobs – but it isn’t sustainable if one person can change the rules arbitrarily.
This is a great explanation. I took an uberx ride last week and rode, by myself, in a 2016 Escalade. The driver was complaining that he’s being pressured to take rides, and that he’s getting paid half what he made last year. I didn’t understand it fully, but your explanation sheds a lot of light.
So, I take Uber pretty regularly, locally and while traveling. I started because the SF taxi situation was utter, complete garbage and I was tired of waiting 30-45 minutes or more for cabs with no updates and a company that acted like they were doing me a favour getting me a cab.
The tech side of Uber is wonderful. I’ve been to a dozen cities around the world now and used Uber, and it’s seamless. If I’m driven in what I believe to be a poor route, I take that up with Uber, not the driver. And no taxi drivers complaining when I don’t pay in cash. My partner, who has been harassed more than once by taxi drivers coming home at night has no such issues, and if she did, she knows who the driver was, and the complaint process is far simpler.
Most of the drivers I’ve had were occasional drivers supplementing income, and loved the freedom Uber provided. I haven’t spoken to any “career” drivers personally about how Uber has been for them.
I hate that the company is making what appear to be dick moves, and I hate even more that these issues appear to start at the top. I’m grateful for the kick in the ass Uber has given to the industry, but would change companies in an instant at this point if an alternative were available in Toronto. Lyft keeps talking about entering the Canadian market. Let’s hope they do soon.
I deleted my Uber account the last time they were in the news for being shitty. No regrets.
What is sad is that drivers have been going out of their way to share ways to get around this pressure. Hacking phones to suddenly show that you are 100 miles away, or losing signal (can only do this a few times) and HOPING you don’t get caught. I drove an X so it didn’t really matter to me, but it was interesting watching the folks try to get around these restrictions.
Because flags were/are being used by the regular members of this bbs to get rid of unpopular members posts. It seems the liberal use of flagging caught on …
Sarcasm was once common here … today - not so much.
Patently untrue, at least insofar as false flagging actually working. Your statement is an insult to the mods who do a herculean amount of work here trying to uphold the community guidelines fairly and equitably, and that includes dinging regulars if they “flase flag” a post.
Take your conspiracy theories elsewhere. Some of us are trying very hard to create a better place here.
