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Alphabet claims Uber was hiding the self-driving tech that it allegedly copied

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Re: Alphabet claims Uber was hiding the self-driving tech that it allegedly copied

#31

Post by yawaworht12 »

onion2k wrote: post #21
SCAQTony wrote: post #4

In the past year have we ever gone a single month without hearing about malfeasance, exploitation or sexual harassment within that company? April alone has tabloid month! Perhaps Uber's CEO should resign so the company can get some breathing room and reboot their brand.

Perhaps Uber's CEO should resign so the company can get some breathing room and reboot their brand. Maybe, unless Kalanick leaving were to be seen as the captain abandoning his sinking ship. At this point it's not really clear if Uber's reputation can actually be rescued. It's pretty bad. That said, plenty of companies make a huge amount of money despite everyone thinking they're terrible. There's no reason why Uber…

Do they have to rescue it? The media has gone so overboard that I jumped off the Uber hating bandwagon about a month ago when I realized that it wasn't a pattern of wrongdoing by the company but a pattern of journalistic malpractice. It's interesting to see that many others are now realizing the same.

Re: Alphabet claims Uber was hiding the self-driving tech that it allegedly copied

#32

Post by yawaworht12 »

sprafa wrote: post #12
sebleon wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While the news makes sensationalist headlines and online outrage, sadly it doesn't seem like consumers care about Uber's behavior.

In most of the world there are no choices. In London there's either Uber or Addison Lee, but the price is lower on Uber. When everyone is forced to play for profits plenty of companies will emerge quickly but for now Uber just burns VC money so they can dominate the market and everyone else stays away (because no one else has free money to burn). We'll find out soon enough whether burning VC money for market penetrat…

Is Uber the only one burning through VC money? Near as I can tell, all the companies are subsidizing to win market share while they figure out how to control costs and get the most bang for their subsidization buck. Can anyone point me at a single ridesharing company that isn't heavily subsidizing the fares?

Assuming they are all subsidizing fares (which I'm almost certain is the case), the question we should be asking ourselves is which ridesharing company is earning the most incremental revenue per subsidy dollar spent?

Re: Alphabet claims Uber was hiding the self-driving tech that it allegedly copied

#33

Post by barneygale »

yawaworht12 wrote: post #32
sprafa wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In most of the world there are no choices. In London there's either Uber or Addison Lee, but the price is lower on Uber. When everyone is forced to play for profits plenty of companies will emerge quickly but for now Uber just burns VC money so they can dominate the market and everyone else stays away (because no one else has free money to burn). We'll find out soon enough whether burning VC money for market penetrat…

Is Uber the only one burning through VC money? Near as I can tell, all the companies are subsidizing to win market share while they figure out how to control costs and get the most bang for their subsidization buck. Can anyone point me at a single ridesharing company that isn't heavily subsidizing the fares? Assuming they are all subsidizing fares (which I'm almost certain is the case), the question we should be aski…

As per naked capitalism's critique, pouring money into Uber will never make fuel, cars or salaries cheaper. There is no magic point where Uber reaches a certain efficiency of scale and stops needing to subsidise every ride.

This is why I use Uber as much as possible: they're doomed, and every ride taken in a redistribution of wealth from silicon valley investors to consumers.

Re: Alphabet claims Uber was hiding the self-driving tech that it allegedly copied

#34

Post by TeMPOraL »

yawaworht12 wrote: post #28
mstank wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also based on a pattern of behavior. These issues are systemic and have been going on for years. This is the same company that ignores sexual harassment claims, illegally tracks and blackmails journalists, deploys highly questionable anti-competitive tactics at will.

I used to work at a very successful tech company that became the Goliath in its market and saw first hand how the media vilified us and interpreted every little thing we did through evil-colored glasses. I few issues were legitimate criticisms but they were textbook cases of situations where Hanlon's Razor should have been applied. Everyone assumed malice where there there was at worst poor judgement. Eventually the…

> Cite me a single shred of evidence to support your claim that they have blackmailed a single journalist.

Google "uber blackmail journalist". It's an almost 3-year story now. People seem to have short memory when it comes to Uber, but they've been pulling shady shit since almost day one. We've been through many of such discussions on HN since then, they're all searchable through Google and Algolia (the search bar at the bottom).

I get that media outlets can all band against particular company - I believe that's actually happened with Susan Fowler case. But Uber has a long history of frequent misbehaviour; that's not vilifying, that's what this company is.

Re: Alphabet claims Uber was hiding the self-driving tech that it allegedly copied

#35

Post by quirkafleeg »

yawaworht12 wrote: post #28
mstank wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also based on a pattern of behavior. These issues are systemic and have been going on for years. This is the same company that ignores sexual harassment claims, illegally tracks and blackmails journalists, deploys highly questionable anti-competitive tactics at will.

I used to work at a very successful tech company that became the Goliath in its market and saw first hand how the media vilified us and interpreted every little thing we did through evil-colored glasses. I few issues were legitimate criticisms but they were textbook cases of situations where Hanlon's Razor should have been applied. Everyone assumed malice where there there was at worst poor judgement. Eventually the…

> there was an actual sexual harassment case filed in an actual court against Tesla, but almost no one heard about that because the media loves Tesla.

I'm always skeptical of these kind of claims about "the media", and if you're talking about AJ Vandermeyden there seem to be plenty of reports:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Vandermeyden+tesla

Re: Alphabet claims Uber was hiding the self-driving tech that it allegedly copied

#36

Post by yawaworht12 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #34
yawaworht12 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work at a very successful tech company that became the Goliath in its market and saw first hand how the media vilified us and interpreted every little thing we did through evil-colored glasses. I few issues were legitimate criticisms but they were textbook cases of situations where Hanlon's Razor should have been applied. Everyone assumed malice where there there was at worst poor judgement. Eventually the…

> Cite me a single shred of evidence to support your claim that they have blackmailed a single journalist. Google "uber blackmail journalist". It's an almost 3-year story now. People seem to have short memory when it comes to Uber, but they've been pulling shady shit since almost day one. We've been through many of such discussions on HN since then, they're all searchable through Google and Algolia (the search bar at…

I just did the search you suggested. It turned up results, none of which show a single example of blackmail. The best I found was a drunk executive speculatively talking about funding opposition journalism on a journalist who was allegedly extraordinarily critical of Uber. Ironically, it looks like you just illustrated one of my points since I'm pretty sure that that journalist and the journalists who broke that stories are both Marc Andreessen funded.

So again, please show me where they blackmailed a journalist because I failed to find any evidence for that. What happened in particular situation you just cited doesn't even come close to meeting the criteria for being blackmail. That said, I want to be charitable here, so I'll assume you're talking about some other incident around that time that I'm unfamiliar with. Was there some other instance you're talking about where they blackmailed a journalist as you've claimed?

Re: Alphabet claims Uber was hiding the self-driving tech that it allegedly copied

#37

Post by yawaworht12 »

quirkafleeg wrote: post #35
yawaworht12 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work at a very successful tech company that became the Goliath in its market and saw first hand how the media vilified us and interpreted every little thing we did through evil-colored glasses. I few issues were legitimate criticisms but they were textbook cases of situations where Hanlon's Razor should have been applied. Everyone assumed malice where there there was at worst poor judgement. Eventually the…

> there was an actual sexual harassment case filed in an actual court against Tesla, but almost no one heard about that because the media loves Tesla. I'm always skeptical of these kind of claims about "the media", and if you're talking about AJ Vandermeyden there seem to be plenty of reports: https://www.google.com/search?q=Vandermeyden+tesla

Please compare the number of upvotes and comments on HN for both stories. I better you the upvotes and comment activity difference between both stories is one if not two orders of magnitude greater.

Re: Alphabet claims Uber was hiding the self-driving tech that it allegedly copied

#39

Post by vertex-four »

yawaworht12 wrote: post #36
TeMPOraL wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cite me a single shred of evidence to support your claim that they have blackmailed a single journalist. Google "uber blackmail journalist". It's an almost 3-year story now. People seem to have short memory when it comes to Uber, but they've been pulling shady shit since almost day one. We've been through many of such discussions on HN since then, they're all searchable through Google and Algolia (the search bar at…

I just did the search you suggested. It turned up results, none of which show a single example of blackmail. The best I found was a drunk executive speculatively talking about funding opposition journalism on a journalist who was allegedly extraordinarily critical of Uber. Ironically, it looks like you just illustrated one of my points since I'm pretty sure that that journalist and the journalists who broke that stor…

> In particular, Michael is reported to have singled out PandoDaily editor-in-chief Sarah Lacy, suggesting that he already knew something about her and could have his team of journalists confirm it.

First article. It's basically creating chilling effects against reporting against Uber. I'm sure every journalist, and every person, has done something they wouldn't want to wind up in an article of the New York Times - and unless a company like Uber goes up against them, those things almost always don't.

Re: Alphabet claims Uber was hiding the self-driving tech that it allegedly copied

#40

Post by merb »

yawaworht12 wrote: post #28
mstank wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also based on a pattern of behavior. These issues are systemic and have been going on for years. This is the same company that ignores sexual harassment claims, illegally tracks and blackmails journalists, deploys highly questionable anti-competitive tactics at will.

I used to work at a very successful tech company that became the Goliath in its market and saw first hand how the media vilified us and interpreted every little thing we did through evil-colored glasses. I few issues were legitimate criticisms but they were textbook cases of situations where Hanlon's Razor should have been applied. Everyone assumed malice where there there was at worst poor judgement. Eventually the…

> but almost no one heard about that because the media loves Tesla.

because it's a totally different story and probably will favor tesla. her report is pretty vague. and if you know that hiring engineers is pretty hard, you would also know that it's not just that a company is discriminating. I mean in the place where I live, searching for a good engineer is extremly hard. Also in the schools there are only sitting one or two woman and 28 other guys, it's not just that there are a lot of woman who want to work in tech, there aren't.

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