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

251–260 of 406 posts

Re: A profound apology

#251

Post by kbenson »

codr4life wrote: post #222
smallnamespace wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those qualities aren't necessarily orthogonal, but think about what it implies about how you should treat that ruthless capitalist. Every dollar you gave to Bill Gates ended up being rather effectively used for good.

Really? Where is the proof, except from a lot of hot air from Bill and his prostitute media; about any good being done? Good for anyone except Bill and his elite buddies, I mean.

Why don't you try pointing out where one of the numerous listed accomplishments[1] are incorrect, or only helpful to Bill Gates and his friends, rather than making unsubstantiated claims?

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundat...

Re: A profound apology

#252

Post by adw »

victorhooi wrote: post #206
codr4life wrote: post #94

Sorry Travis; once an asshole, always an asshole; all the leadership training in the world isn't going to change that. You're 40 years old, how long would you have us waiting? Even brother J. was on your tail in noting that bad trees don't give good fruit. Claiming 'profound' for PR-bullshit like this when you're in that kind of mess is just another nail in the coffin.

I'm not really sure if your a hole comment is warranted? Have you watched the source material? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTEDYCkNqns It's not exactly like Travis is abusing the driver - if anything, it's the other way around. The driver had a bone to pick, and needed to vent - Travis obviously just wanted to go home, on what was obviously a night off. The fact he actually took the time to try to listen to the d…

> what was obviously a night off

Public figures don't get time off. It's one of the ugliest parts of the gig.

Re: A profound apology

#253

Post by imh »

_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…

Here's the video of that part: https://youtu.be/gTEDYCkNqns?t=3m54s (starting at 3:54)

Re: A profound apology

#254

Post by lazyasciiart »

gingerbread-man wrote: post #195
argonaut wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something that struck me is: almost half of the country would disagree with you (the more conservative half). A lot of the American public believes what Kalanick said to be very true when it comes to low-ish income people complaining about what wealthier people do to them.

In my experience, it isn't the wealthy who think the poor are lazy/irresponsible-- it's the working poor and the lower middle class. The "more conservative half" of the country isn't particularly the wealthier half of the country. Speculating as to why that is would probably overflow this comments section.

I know a lot of well off programmers who absolutely believe that the only reason anyone isn't a well off programmer is laziness and poor character. Don't know how you're making your class divisions, but I certainly wouldn't call them lower middle class or below.

Re: A profound apology

#255

Post by crazy2be »

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.

Actually, this is a good point.

Uber subsidizes fares ~20% or so currently. Assuming they didn't used to do this, the payout to drivers seems like it would be about the same:

3.75 / 0.8 => 4.6875 (vs $4.90 originally)

The per-minute fees are still quite a bit lower, admittedly:

0.65 / 0.8 => 0.8125 (vs $1.25 originally)

Re: A profound apology

#256

Post by dang »

codr4life wrote: post #94

Sorry Travis; once an asshole, always an asshole; all the leadership training in the world isn't going to change that. You're 40 years old, how long would you have us waiting? Even brother J. was on your tail in noting that bad trees don't give good fruit. Claiming 'profound' for PR-bullshit like this when you're in that kind of mess is just another nail in the coffin.

You can't attack another human being like this here, regardless of who they are or how you hate them. It degrades the community. Also, I'm sure you wouldn't want anyone to place this kind of judgment on you.

Because this type of comment is not welcome here, I'm going to kill this one now, as well as the other ones in which you've been venting. Please don't vent on HN.

Re: A profound apology

#257

Post by [deleted] »

_xhok wrote: post #153
_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…

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…

[deleted]

Re: A profound apology

#258

Post by dang »

throwaway91111 wrote: post #196

Just the qualities of a leader that driver needed. Oh wait, sorry, that would imply some acceptance of responsibility.

Please don't post snark about inflammatory topics. It's the last thing we need more of here.

If you have a substantive point to make, please make it thoughtfully. If you don't, please don't post at all.

We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13761339 and marked it off-topic.

Re: A profound apology

#260

Post by dnautics »

_xhok wrote: post #216
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…

I spent the last half hour thinking about this on and off, trying to shift my perspective. I feel sort of guilty. Advocating for objectivity and dispassionate truthseeking is the second easiest way to curry favor on HN, and it feels cheap. (The easiest is still outrage, never to be topped anywhere :)) If anything, I find it sort of funny that Travis got mad. He handled it pretty well at first; they were just having a…

I think it's great that you can both feel a bit of guilt about your position (it's totally understandable; I wouldn't get carried away with guilt...) and also find humor in it.

> And saying that some people don't like to take responsibility for their own shit is, well, true?

It's true, but also I think it's also a massive amount of impromptu projection on the part of Travis!

Post reply on HN