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A profound apology

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Re: A profound apology

#271

Post by piyush_soni »

simplehuman wrote: post #147
codr4life wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very depraved measure of success, like piling up money is something to be admired; even seeing clearly what kind of behavior is driving this apparently isn't enough for the penny to drop.

Years from now, he will donate to charity and do philanthropic things and all will be forgotten. Just like another billionaire we know.

I'm not sure. Unlike other millionaires and billionaires (lot of them donate money), Bill is actually working directly on the fields and giving almost all his time to improving Health and Education in the world. That's something big and I really appreciate him for that. Had he been 'only' giving money, I wouldn't be moved much.

Re: A profound apology

#272

Post by jhayward »

gingerbread-man wrote: post #186
_xhok wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I didn't find this disproportionately disrespectful. The driver makes a couple unsubstantiated claims (perfectly ok--it's a car discussion). Travis does the same. The driver starts making accusations ("you keep changing every day"). Travis asks for clarification. The driver keeps up his attack ("You changed the whole business! You dropped the prices.") If someone accused me in such a fashion, and persiste…

The Fowler post is grounds for questioning Kalanick's leadership; this just shows that he's not in PR mode 24/7. Being kind-of-a-dick is tolerable, as long as you're good at your job. The bigger leadership issue is that he can't seem to maintain happy drivers (or employees.)

> Being kind-of-a-dick is tolerable, as long as you're good at your job

It's hard to believe someone would say this today. It seems you missed the whole point of the "but he's a high performer" excuse that Uber has (allegedly) been making when not addressing harassment and worse.

Re: A profound apology

#273

Post by taoufix »

nothrabannosir wrote: post #269
_xhok wrote: post #124

Here's the conversation that took place: Travis: So we are reducing the number of black cars in the next few months. Fawzi: It’s good. Travis: You probably saw some email. Fawzi: I saw the email [that says] it starts in May. But you’re raising the standards and dropping the prices. Travis: We’re not dropping the prices on Black. Fawzi: But in general. Travis: In general, but we have competitors. Otherwise we’d be out…

Sorry to bother you with this meta stuff but could you please remove the four space indent? :/ this makes it impossible to read on mobile. I tried to copy paste it, but safari :(

Here you go :

Travis: So we are reducing the number of black cars in the next few months.

Fawzi: It’s good.

Travis: You probably saw some email.

Fawzi: I saw the email [that says] it starts in May. But you’re raising the standards and dropping the prices.

Travis: We’re not dropping the prices on Black.

Fawzi: But in general.

Travis: In general, but we have competitors. Otherwise we’d be out of business.

Fawzi: Competitors? You had the business model in your hands, you could have the prices you want but you choose to buy everybody a ride.

Travis: No, no no. You misunderstand me. We started high-end. We didn’t go low-end because we wanted to. We went low-end because we had to because we’d be out of business.

Fawzi: But people are not trusting you anymore. Do you think people will buy cars anymore? ... I lost $97,000 because of you. I'm bankrupt because of you. You keep changing every day. You keep changing every day.

Travis: Hold on a second. What have I changed about Black?

Fawzi: You changed the whole business! You dropped the prices.

Travis: On Black? Bullshit.

Fawzi: We started with $20.

Travis: You know what, some people don't like to take responsibility for their own shit. They blame everything in their life on somebody else. Good luck!

Fawzi: Good luck to you too, I know that you aren’t going to go far.

Re: A profound apology

#275

Post by fstuff »

_xhok wrote: post #124

Here's the conversation that took place: Travis: So we are reducing the number of black cars in the next few months. Fawzi: It’s good. Travis: You probably saw some email. Fawzi: I saw the email [that says] it starts in May. But you’re raising the standards and dropping the prices. Travis: We’re not dropping the prices on Black. Fawzi: But in general. Travis: In general, but we have competitors. Otherwise we’d be out…

This comment on reddit explains it well

/r/cars/comments/5wrdk2/comment/decxcxi

Re: A profound apology

#276

Post by fstuff »

btian wrote: post #191
_xhok wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I didn't find this disproportionately disrespectful. The driver makes a couple unsubstantiated claims (perfectly ok--it's a car discussion). Travis does the same. The driver starts making accusations ("you keep changing every day"). Travis asks for clarification. The driver keeps up his attack ("You changed the whole business! You dropped the prices.") If someone accused me in such a fashion, and persiste…

From the Bloomberg article - > In 2012, Uber Black cost riders $4.90 per mile or $1.25 per minute in San Francisco, according to an old version of Uber's website. Today, Uber charges $3.75 per mile and $0.65 per minute. The least a CEO could have said is to thank the driver for his feedback and promise to look into it. Just because you're disrespectful doesn't mean the CEO of a consumer facing company can treat its p…

This comment on reddit explains it well

/r/cars/comments/5wrdk2/comment/decxcxi

Re: A profound apology

#277

Post by fstuff »

nstj wrote: post #226
btian wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the Bloomberg article - > In 2012, Uber Black cost riders $4.90 per mile or $1.25 per minute in San Francisco, according to an old version of Uber's website. Today, Uber charges $3.75 per mile and $0.65 per minute. The least a CEO could have said is to thank the driver for his feedback and promise to look into it. Just because you're disrespectful doesn't mean the CEO of a consumer facing company can treat its p…

Is there any evidence provided that the per-mile amount paid to drivers of Uber Black cars has gone down? I saw the article mention that the price to customers has gone down from $4.90 to $3.75, but is there any evidence of this actually flowing through to the drivers? Just a thought.

This comment on reddit explains it well

/r/cars/comments/5wrdk2/comment/decxcxi

Re: A profound apology

#278

Post by fstuff »

gragas wrote: post #167
_xhok wrote: post #124

Here's the conversation that took place: Travis: So we are reducing the number of black cars in the next few months. Fawzi: It’s good. Travis: You probably saw some email. Fawzi: I saw the email [that says] it starts in May. But you’re raising the standards and dropping the prices. Travis: We’re not dropping the prices on Black. Fawzi: But in general. Travis: In general, but we have competitors. Otherwise we’d be out…

I completely agree with Travis and I don't think he did anything wrong. I think it was a bad move on his part to apologize for the video.

This comment on reddit explains it well

/r/cars/comments/5wrdk2/comment/decxcxi

Re: A profound apology

#279

Post by fstuff »

meowface wrote: post #11

This doesn't excuse the way he talked to the driver either way, but who was factually correct in the conversation? http://www.recode.net/2017/2/28/14766964/video-uber-travis-k... >Kamel: “But people are not trusting you anymore. Do you think people will buy cars anymore? ... I lost $97,000 because of you. I'm bankrupt because of you. You keep changing every day. You keep changing every day.” >Kalanick: “Hold on a sec…

This comment on reddit explains it well

/r/cars/comments/5wrdk2/comment/decxcxi

Re: A profound apology

#280

Post by yazaddaruvala »

dnautics wrote: post #262
synicalx wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If something's true, does it really matter if it insults someone? Driver buys a $97k car, goes bankrupt because as it turns out buying a super expensive car that you obviously can't afford is a dumb idea, then decides to blame someone else for his poor decision making.

I don't think it was unreasonable to consider a $97K car as a business expenditure was such a bad idea. Let's say you get a 5-year loan, liberally that's about $30k a year, which is more than covered by the cost and business that Uber (UberBlack) was generating at the time; Until of course the volume of UberBlack got eaten into by the presence of UberX on top of fare cuts.

Making the correct short-term business decision without fully understanding the long-term market forces in that domain, can still be a bad long-term decision.

It is the business owner's (investor's) responsibility to understand and plan for the long-term. Not planning for the long-term is exactly what happened here. I do not believe this man should have been disrespected, however, his decision to buy a car he could not afford, was his own and was objectively a bad decision.

Do you know the story of the grasshopper and the ants[0]? Regardless of who is controlling the weather (in our case, Uber). Its the grasshopper's fault for not storing food for the winter.

[0] http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/AntGra.shtm...

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