Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A profound apology

newsroom.uber.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 406 posts

Re: A profound apology

#101

Post by x0x0 »

unityByFreedom wrote: post #41
throwanem wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think that's because he has experienced a genuine change of heart and intends on doing all in his power to repair at least some of his myriad grievous failures in the exercise of his responsibilities? Or do you think it's because, this time, he's actually in the video, and really has no options beyond a) try to seem sincerely humbled and intent on improving, or b) do literally anything else , and look like suc…

> Do you think that's because he has experienced a genuine change of heart and intends on doing all in his power to repair at least some of his myriad grievous failures in the exercise of his responsibilities? I think that's impossible for anyone to judge but himself. He said he's going to seek help. That's (a) admission he did something wrong and (b) a proactive attempt to do something about it. That is precisely th…

You don't have to be all that suspicious a person to think that a 40 year old man, who has demonstrated a repeated pattern of behavior over his life, in a situation where his job is on the line and a crisis manager is writing letters like this, should probably be assigned a prior greater than 0.95 of, well, lying.

Re: A profound apology

#102

Post by habitue »

throwanem wrote: post #23
unityByFreedom wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's so terrible. There are a lot of ways he could have reacted to this video. He hasn't passed the buck and is taking responsibility for his actions, for once.

Do you think that's because he has experienced a genuine change of heart and intends on doing all in his power to repair at least some of his myriad grievous failures in the exercise of his responsibilities? Or do you think it's because, this time, he's actually in the video, and really has no options beyond a) try to seem sincerely humbled and intent on improving, or b) do literally anything else , and look like suc…

> has no options beyond a) try to seem sincerely humbled and intent on improving, or b) do literally anything else

You know, a year ago I would have nodded along to your reply. But after seeing Trump choose B every time and repeatedly get away with it, I have to give Travis at least a modicum of credit for not going full Trump on this one. Not a lot of credit, but the decision was his.

Re: A profound apology

#103

Post by [deleted] »

sjtgraham wrote: post #16

The driver covertly filmed a passenger during a ride he was being paid for and disclosed the footage to a news organisation. This is extremely unethical IMO. Even if this is the CEO of Uber, it is entirely inappropriate, and he IMO is still entitled to an expectation of privacy equally as you or I would when we are paying for the exclusive private hire of a vehicle.

[deleted]

Re: A profound apology

#104

Post by linuxkerneldev »

unityByFreedom wrote: post #63
ethbro wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because normally the CEO is fired after presiding over a fuckup of this magnitude. (The rampant racism and sexism, not just this latest)

If social media wants his head, I'm sure they can get it. I think it's bad for tech and the country when we don't support people who say they made a mistake and are seeking help. If you do that, you only end up with really good liars in charge. Allow someone, somewhere, to admit a mistake and correct it in a leadership position.

> we don't support people who say they made a mistake and are seeking help.

> you only end up with really good liars in charge.

There's a difference between someone realizing they've made a mistake and openly admitting it without needing external pressure / evidence versus someone just "handling" more evidence of wrong-doing coming up.

In this case, at a cursory glance, it looks more like someone was accused of a negative type of behavior, the person never acknowledged it or resolved it for a long period, then suddenly a series of events followed by video evidence came-up, only then the person acknowledges it and issues an apology and demands/expects to be forgiven. If that's what's happened in this case, then I'm not sure that forgiving them / supporting their subsequent activities is safe since it would be more like enablement, ie: just enabling the person to continue.

If on the other hand, the perpetrator acknowledged not just this specific issue that had video evidence, but also acknowledged other issues/faults and gave a plan of action for how they were changing their behavior (more than I'm getting help now), then it would be something positive.

Re: A profound apology

#105

Post by jozzas »

unityByFreedom wrote: post #63
ethbro wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because normally the CEO is fired after presiding over a fuckup of this magnitude. (The rampant racism and sexism, not just this latest)

If social media wants his head, I'm sure they can get it. I think it's bad for tech and the country when we don't support people who say they made a mistake and are seeking help. If you do that, you only end up with really good liars in charge. Allow someone, somewhere, to admit a mistake and correct it in a leadership position.

At this point it's a pattern of behaviour and not a mistake. He doesn't need leadership training, he needs a personality transplant.

Re: A profound apology

#106

Post by DanHulton »

unityByFreedom wrote: post #63
ethbro wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because normally the CEO is fired after presiding over a fuckup of this magnitude. (The rampant racism and sexism, not just this latest)

If social media wants his head, I'm sure they can get it. I think it's bad for tech and the country when we don't support people who say they made a mistake and are seeking help. If you do that, you only end up with really good liars in charge. Allow someone, somewhere, to admit a mistake and correct it in a leadership position.

Actions, not words.

We need clear and concrete proof that the myriad issues at Uber will be addressed, and a vague, handwavey "I'll do better" is not that.

He could have announced an advisory team being brought on board to help steer the company back on track, or a cleaning house of managers with abusive track records, or drastic new internal guidelines with harsh penalties for bullshit sexist/racist/intolerant behaviour.

Uber has just such an awful track record and is just so untrustworthy, why should we start trusting them when they've given us no actual reason to?

Re: A profound apology

#107

Post by DanHulton »

jozzas wrote: post #105
unityByFreedom wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If social media wants his head, I'm sure they can get it. I think it's bad for tech and the country when we don't support people who say they made a mistake and are seeking help. If you do that, you only end up with really good liars in charge. Allow someone, somewhere, to admit a mistake and correct it in a leadership position.

At this point it's a pattern of behaviour and not a mistake. He doesn't need leadership training, he needs a personality transplant.

Or a leadership transplant. Wipe the whole C-level.

Re: A profound apology

#108

Post by mhluongo »

comex wrote: post #92
huac wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Bloomberg article notes the decreased rates: > 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.

That's a good data point, but not perfect, since the amount Uber charges customers isn't necessarily directly correlated with the amount they pay drivers...

I thought Uber took a standard %?

Re: A profound apology

#109

Post by vacri »

habitue wrote: post #102
throwanem wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think that's because he has experienced a genuine change of heart and intends on doing all in his power to repair at least some of his myriad grievous failures in the exercise of his responsibilities? Or do you think it's because, this time, he's actually in the video, and really has no options beyond a) try to seem sincerely humbled and intent on improving, or b) do literally anything else , and look like suc…

> has no options beyond a) try to seem sincerely humbled and intent on improving, or b) do literally anything else You know, a year ago I would have nodded along to your reply. But after seeing Trump choose B every time and repeatedly get away with it, I have to give Travis at least a modicum of credit for not going full Trump on this one. Not a lot of credit, but the decision was his.

Speaking of Trump, Jon Stewart pointed out something interesting recently - it's clear he's always lying, because no-one says 'believe me' when they're not lying. And Trump says it all the time.

"I didn't take the last cookie... believe me"

Re: A profound apology

#110

Post by unityByFreedom »

ubernostrum wrote: post #90
unityByFreedom wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We've gone through this apology ruse any number of times, and yet here we are again. Not to this degree. He said he intends to get help. Companies don't change their culture without the CEO being involved in the process. A CEO saying this is a big deal.

New companies don't develop a culture without the founder being a major influencer. The idea that he has just now realized what was going on at "Boober" and is shocked, shocked! to learn about it and that it was bad, strains credulity well past the point of breaking. This is him trying to say whatever he thinks will take the heat off for a while. Prediction: a year from now no substantive change whatsoever within Ube…

He doesn't sound shocked to me. The brevity of this post makes him sound pensive, like, oh my god, this is what I am, what have I done and how do I fix it?

You can't write much about that beyond what he did.

I'll make a counter prediction, that something does change. Nothing good comes from wishing for their failure.

Post reply on HN