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Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

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Re: Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

#81

Post by meowface »

famousactress wrote: post #69
meowface wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber's executives are known for making some sexist remarks and just generally being douches. I don't think it's fair to say that Silicon Valley has a misogyny problem, but Uber's hilariously stereotypical "frat boy" culture certainly seems to.

> I don't think it's fair to say that Silicon Valley has a misogyny problem Okay, let's flip it then. What's the canary? What are signs that an industry/organization/culture has a misogyny problem? I'd honestly love to see someone posit a reasonable litmus test that the Valley(slash-our-industry) doesn't qualify for.

Well, I have no serious empirical data to say whether it is or isn't. But just based on what I hear in the media and online, it does not seem like there is any more misogyny than any other industry; basically it seems to be like "what you'd expect" given a sufficient sampling of the population. Take hundreds of thousands of people and a bunch are bound to be thieves, murderers, or misogynists.

Re: Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

#82

Post by cwp »

mattee wrote: post #6

Peter Thiel is correct. But, it should be noted, that as an investor in Lyft, Thiel has a big interest in scolding Uber publicly.

True, but actually, he was too easy on them. He said, "and I think Uber's right on the cusp of going simply too far on many of these things."

Uber's not on the cusp. They have gone too far.

Re: Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

#83

Post by thrush »

001sky wrote: post #73
thrush wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you've misinterpreted what Thiel meant about Uber's ethical problem. It seems like Thiel was actually talking about the competition between Uber and Lyft rather than Taxis. The points you bring up are actually no longer huge problems for Uber. Some airports legally allow Uber to stop by. Uber is incredibly better than the previous Taxi service for both the employee (read about Healthcare), and for the consume…

The points you bring up are actually no longer huge problems for Uber That was yesterday, right?

It really seems like your points were towards legislation that prevents Uber from operating as business where Taxis are the main competition, not other similar services like Lyft. Journalists cover lots of stories, and I think the one that I linked in the Verge is a great example of something Uber would not want released. $1M is also nothing compared to what they pay their lawyers to fight legal battles against Taxi incumbents.

Re: Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

#84

Post by designNERD »

mattee wrote: post #6

Peter Thiel is correct. But, it should be noted, that as an investor in Lyft, Thiel has a big interest in scolding Uber publicly.

And Lyft is not without their own issues.

http://valleywag.gawker.com/lyft-guts-luxury-service-stickin...

Re: Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

#85

Post by wiredfool »

cwp wrote: post #82
mattee wrote: post #6

Peter Thiel is correct. But, it should be noted, that as an investor in Lyft, Thiel has a big interest in scolding Uber publicly.

True, but actually, he was too easy on them. He said, "and I think Uber's right on the cusp of going simply too far on many of these things." Uber's not on the cusp. They have gone too far.

To be fair, the comments were noted to have been made before the latest issue. So, perhaps they were on the cusp last week, and have plummeted over it this.

Re: Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

#86

Post by knorby »

designNERD wrote: post #84
mattee wrote: post #6

Peter Thiel is correct. But, it should be noted, that as an investor in Lyft, Thiel has a big interest in scolding Uber publicly.

And Lyft is not without their own issues. http://valleywag.gawker.com/lyft-guts-luxury-service-stickin...

Given that the drivers agreed to buy the SUVs in the first place, I'm not sure what else Lyft could really be expected to do here. They helped the drivers sell the SUVs and sent them a fairly sizable bit of compensation.

A lot of car share drivers, particularly for UberX, end up buying cars as part of driving. It seems like a reasonable though failed experiment.

Re: Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

#88

Post by beartime »

ilamont wrote: post #49

Does anyone else remember the "PayPal Mafia" article ( http://fortune.com/2007/11/13/paypal-mafia/ ) that Fortune did some years ago? There was one description that really stuck with me -- how customer service complaints were handled under Thiel's watch: Customer-service complaints flooded the phone lines and in-boxes and were often dealt with by simply not answering the phone or doing a mass deletion. What sort of l…

Ok, apparently he is an asshole. Is he wrong about uber though?

Re: Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

#89

Post by confluence »

ilamont wrote: post #49

Does anyone else remember the "PayPal Mafia" article ( http://fortune.com/2007/11/13/paypal-mafia/ ) that Fortune did some years ago? There was one description that really stuck with me -- how customer service complaints were handled under Thiel's watch: Customer-service complaints flooded the phone lines and in-boxes and were often dealt with by simply not answering the phone or doing a mass deletion. What sort of l…

I've always speculated that unethical managers will outperform ethical managers under non-life threatening conditions.

For example, being unethical at say a chemical company will lead to the end of your company in that area after a catastrophe. Being unethical at a payment processor and the worse that can happen is someone doesn't get paid on time or at all. So in that situation dumping the customer complaints saved a bunch of resources at little cost, since the customers would be back, PayPal was pretty good compared to their competition, leading to them out executing eBay and getting acquired.

I AM NOT saying that I agree with this. I'm just thinking about the why behind it.

Re: Peter Thiel: Uber is most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley [video]

#90

Post by 001sky »

thrush wrote: post #83
001sky wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The points you bring up are actually no longer huge problems for Uber That was yesterday, right?

It really seems like your points were towards legislation that prevents Uber from operating as business where Taxis are the main competition, not other similar services like Lyft. Journalists cover lots of stories, and I think the one that I linked in the Verge is a great example of something Uber would not want released. $1M is also nothing compared to what they pay their lawyers to fight legal battles against Taxi…

They have to operate in a policy grey area. They don't need to operate in an ethical grey area. Mixing the two is bad for business.
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