Uber is self-destructing from within

[juan917]

Uber's no-good, very bad month: The stunning string of blows that have upended the world's most valuable startup

It's pretty insane, here are some quotes from the article

Employees did cocaine during a company retreat and a manager had to be fired after groping multiple women, according to the report. Former employees said they'd notified Uber's leadership, including Kalanick and CTO Thuan Pham, of the workplace harassment.

The New York Times revealed that Uber has been secretively deceiving authorities for years with a tool called 'Greyball'. Uber used the tool to evade authorities, particularly at times when city regulators were trying to block the ride-hailing service, according to a report by The New York Times' Mike Isaac. The tool collected data from Uber's app to identify and evade officials in cities like Boston, Paris, and Las Vegas.

In the video — recorded by the driver, Fawzi Kamel — CEO Travis Kalanick sits in the back between two women on Super Bowl Sunday...

.. "You know what? Some people don't like to take responsibility for their own s---. They blame everything in their life on somebody else.

The executive exodus also continued with Uber's head of AI only lasting four months at the company. Gary Marcus stepped aside to become an "adviser" to Uber, only four months after the ride-hailing company had acquired his artificial intelligence startup, Geometric Intelligence.

 

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[Tony Tony]

Sounds like Wolf of Wall Street culture

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

 

[Ravens_Shadow]

This gives other companies like lyft the break they need. Another company is probably going to swoop in during this time and ride off the coat tails of PR against uber and dethrone them. A good way to poach great employees from other companies is to have a better culture within your company. Should be interesting to see what plays out over the next year or so.

Better products and customer service isn't the only way to beat your competitors you know.

 

[Rickchise23]

This gives other companies like lyft the break they need. Another company is probably going to swoop in during this time and ride off the coat tails of PR against uber and dethrone them. A good way to poach great employees from other companies is to have a better culture within your company. Should be interesting to see what plays out over the next year or so.

Better products and customer service isn't the only way to beat your competitors you know.

Agreed. Always use lift just because they seem to treat the drivers better. It seems the same arrogance and elitist mentality that drove UBER to such success may in he end be the companys downfall. They need to realize that as much as their software is B2C, they also have to manage their B2B relationships with their drivers. Right now Lift is sitting pretty letting UBER spend its funding to break into these new markets while moving into position once the taxi mafias are taken down by UBER. Interesting time in Ride Share startups, I know in Asia there have been a few similar startups we will see which competitors can make some headway in light of UBERs turmoil.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Curious to know if their driver pool will ever get depleted, or, are there simply too many people willing to work the minimum because it offers autonomy.

Sometimes I think both companies continue to find drivers based on the greater-fool theory. At some point, you run out of fools.

When gas, insurance, depreciation and time is calculated into a driver's net, they're usually making minimum wages. And yet, because a driver can "work when they want", it is acceptable. I think this is indicative on how much importance autonomy has in one's happiness -- people won't work at a fast food joint for minimum wage, but they will if they have control over when they have to work to get their minimum wage. I know when I was younger, I would have loved to have driven for Uber, just for the sake of making my own schedule.

 

[northerndough]

Curious to know if their driver pool will ever get depleted, or, are there simply too many people willing to work the minimum because it offers autonomy.

Sometimes I think both companies continue to find drivers based on the greater-fool theory. At some point, you run out of fools.

When gas, insurance, depreciation and time is calculated into a driver's net, they're usually making minimum wages. And yet, because a driver can "work when they want", it is acceptable. I think this is indicative on how much importance autonomy has in one's happiness -- people won't work at a fast food joint for minimum wage, but they will if they have control over when they have to work to get their minimum wage. I know when I was younger, I would have loved to have driven for Uber, just for the sake of making my own schedule.

Millions upon millions of people earn minimum wage, and with part time jobs gaining in numbers every year, thus even more people just earning the minimum, I really doubt that their pool of drivers will ever run out anytime soon. Plus as you say, with the added benefit of working when they want.

 

[V8Bill]

There are a couple of companies down here in Australia who are taking advantage of this right now and at least one in the U.S. A females only uber-style service. They pick up only females (and boys under 12). All women drivers. They decided to start up after all the abuse (mostly sexual I'd imagine) women cop in cabs and bad uber experiences. If upon arrival a man tries to get in they cancel the job and charge the person a fee. Seems to be taking off.

 

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[GuitarManDan]

It's a fascinating case study to see how Uber's competitors (Lyft, for example) are responding and trying to capitalize on the bad press around the former industry leader.

To MJ's point above, I think the benefit of making your own schedule will always keep a consistent pool of drivers, as that flexibility/freedom is rarely associated with minimum wage jobs.

 

[TonyStark]

Not to mention their failed self-driving car.

 

[KSR]

Well, that's one way to F*ck up a multi-billion dollar company.

 

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[OldFaithful]

There are a couple of companies down here in Australia who are taking advantage of this right now and at least one in the U.S. A females only uber-style service. They pick up only females (and boys under 12). All women drivers. They decided to start up after all the abuse (mostly sexual I'd imagine) women cop in cabs and bad uber experiences. If upon arrival a man tries to get in they cancel the job and charge the person a fee. Seems to be taking off.

I can't imagine how this would work in the USA. Gender equality is such a hot topic, that restricting the service to female customers only, will certainly end up in court!

 

[The-J]

I'm of the opinion that Uber's current business model will be obsolete when self driving cars come into play. Uber seems to be making moves in that market though, so maybe there will be some changes.

Uber keeps shooting itself in the foot by operating illegally, rather than spending their VC money on lobbying at the municipal level from the outset. They're spending on it NOW, but they should have been doing it from day zero. Nobody likes taxis, and Uber could make municipalities way more money than they do from medallions (which the city rarely profits from anyway because of medallion resellers; they wanna see more of the pie). Uber could have gone in and said 'Hey city officials, wanna kill those pesky taxi companies for good and start seeing more of their money back into the pocket of the city? We could use it to lower taxes and secure your re-election. We'll bring jobs to the area, which will secure your re-election. Come on homies' but no, they wanna say 'F*ck the police' and act like they're F*cking Batman.

My problem with Uber is that it takes the 'maverick' idea way too F*ckin seriously.

 

[jpanarra]

This is a fascinating case, they grew really fast and hard so there wasn't enough time to really control and have a healthy company culture. Now they have to deal with a culture that grew on its own and much harder for them to steer it in the right direction and come across as an ethical company.

Lyft and other competitors should try to take advantage of this opportunity and plaster themselves as the 'honorable' company. look at that filth over there...

Same story with united and their competitors.

 

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[DVU]

Honestly, I don't think they will just crash and burn.

They are just too big to just crash and be gone. Lyft might take over the market in the upcoming years but in the meantime, uber will be making big bucks.

And even if they continue to F*ck up the way they do(also pretty sure that media blows their "smaller" incidents out of proportion, because no one likes the new big kid on the block.) it is going to take a long time before it all goes to the ground. Plus, there is a pretty high chance they will get their shit together on a lot of these F*ck ups.

I recently read an article about one of their incidents, and what did they do, show how much cash they are making and are worth.

 

[Raoul Duke]

I can't imagine how this would work in the USA. Gender equality is such a hot topic, that restricting the service to female customers only, will certainly end up in court!

 

[The-J]

They are just too big to just crash and be gone.

Doesn't exist

 

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[DVU]

Doesn't exist

What I meant is if it happens it won't happen fast as everyone is predicting.

 

[JAJT]

When gas, insurance, depreciation and time is calculated into a driver's net, they're usually making minimum wages. And yet, because a driver can "work when they want", it is acceptable. I think this is indicative on how much importance autonomy has in one's happiness

I also think it's a pretty good case to support the fact that most people can't (won't) do simple math.

Any company that has it's workers pay for the majority of their job requirements will continue to attract people by omitting those costs and people will continue to ignore them.

College/Uni is an example I love bringing up because it's the largest "I didn't do the math" situation I can think of.

People will happily sit on their mountains of debt and proclaim that university is the obvious key to more money. Sometimes if you are lucky they may even have a 40 year old line chart to prove this.

When you ask them:
- How much did you not make during those 4 years
- How long will it take to pay down that debt
- What's the value of the lost experience during those 4 years worth?
- At what year do you break even on your education?
- How much interest will you pay over the course of your repayment period?

They just stare at you like a deer in the headlines because they never even questioned those things. It's pretty simple math to get most of those numbers but instead they continue to file into the school system like cattle to an abattoir all chanting "At least we'll be educated!"

 

[BradD]

I also think it's a pretty good case to support the fact that most people can't (won't) do simple math.

Any company that has it's workers pay for the majority of their job requirements will continue to attract people by omitting those costs and people will continue to ignore them.

College/Uni is an example I love bringing up because it's the largest "I didn't do the math" situation I can think of.

People will happily sit on their mountains of debt and proclaim that university is the obvious key to more money. Sometimes if you are lucky they may even have a 40 year old line chart to prove this.

When you ask them:
- How much did you not make during those 4 years
- How long will it take to pay down that debt
- What's the value of the lost experience during those 4 years worth?
- At what year do you break even on your education?
- How much interest will you pay over the course of your repayment period?

They just stare at you like a deer in the headlines because they never even questioned those things. It's pretty simple math to get most of those numbers but instead they continue to file into the school system like cattle to an abattoir all chanting "At least we'll be educated!"

The math gets even worse when said driver picks you up in a Tesla or insert other 100k+ auto here, never understood that one

 

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[Andy Black]

I also think it's a pretty good case to support the fact that most people can't (won't) do simple math.

Any company that has it's workers pay for the majority of their job requirements will continue to attract people by omitting those costs and people will continue to ignore them.

College/Uni is an example I love bringing up because it's the largest "I didn't do the math" situation I can think of.

People will happily sit on their mountains of debt and proclaim that university is the obvious key to more money. Sometimes if you are lucky they may even have a 40 year old line chart to prove this.

When you ask them:
- How much did you not make during those 4 years
- How long will it take to pay down that debt
- What's the value of the lost experience during those 4 years worth?
- At what year do you break even on your education?
- How much interest will you pay over the course of your repayment period?

They just stare at you like a deer in the headlines because they never even questioned those things. It's pretty simple math to get most of those numbers but instead they continue to file into the school system like cattle to an abattoir all chanting "At least we'll be educated!"

Ouch. Pretty vivid imagery.

Zero chance of a student thinking of those questions.

 

[lowtek]

I can't imagine how this would work in the USA. Gender equality is such a hot topic, that restricting the service to female customers only, will certainly end up in court!

Gender equality isn't gender equality, in the states. It's female supremacy. Such a service would be lauded by the progressive media and likely do quite well in the PR war.

 

[MitchC]

Gender equality isn't gender equality, in the states. It's female supremacy. Such a service would be lauded by the progressive media and likely do quite well in the PR war.

Well Australia is the same as thats exactly what the media did with these companies

 

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[Mckenzie]

What are the NEEDS here, i.e. business opportunities? I could smell...."problems, paint points, service deficiencies, emotions" (quote d MJ's book)