Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O. • Hacker News Board

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#601

Post by biztos » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 1:41 PM UTC

naskwo wrote: post #352

A few weeks ago, I posted on HN about my experience in Hamburg (no Uber in Germany. The local taxi authority has its own app which works equally well, if not better). Last weekend, I was in Budapest. There is no Uber in Hungary (anymore), but the main taxi company (Fötaxi) has its own app which works brilliantly. I honestly see no "moat" around Uber in markets where (large) taxi dispatchers have the insight to build…

I don't use a taxi app in Budapest -- the good old phone dispatchers still work just fine and I almost never wait more than 10 minutes for a cab -- but in Berlin I use the "MyTaxi" app all the time[0].

The thing I find interesting is that MyTaxi is loosely coupled with the drivers. There is no obligation to pick up MyTaxi fares, you can go about your business as a cabbie and take MyTaxi fares when business is slow. Seems to work quite well for the drivers.

This morning I had to wait probably 15 minutes before a driver took my MyTaxi order, but considering how bad the phone-dispatch service is in Berlin I call that a win.

Everything else is very Uber-like: electronic receipt, pay in app if you like, tracking of the car on its way to you (more or less).

Oh, and two very neat features: you see your cabbie's full name (this feels safer to me) and you can save them, after rating, to a "favorite drivers" list, which I assume the service will use to help improve customer satisfaction.

[0]: https://de.mytaxi.com/index.html

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#602

Post by noway421 » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 1:41 PM UTC

leroy_masochist wrote: post #489

rsp1984 wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may kill Uber. Highly unlikely. Why? Investors who stomach multi-billion dollar annual losses will probably just shrug off the recent bit of trouble. If the choice is to either write off $15 billion or to give another couple to help the company go through a rough patch (what a buying opportunity!) I think I know what investors are going to do. Kalanick's head has now rolled (not that it really hurts him much per…

Your comment is predicated on the fallacy that Uber's success is merely a function of runway / the ability to find new investors. Bear in mind that the company's growth has been driven by its ability to run a very, very highly-performant backend -- and that's in turn a matter of getting the very best engineering talent on board. Some, perhaps most of that talent is already pissed off about the fratty work environment…

How increased exercise window would hurt the company? I think it's something which pleases and reduces employees' anxiousness.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#603

Post by emodendroket » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 1:41 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #41

This may kill Uber. Kalanick is a jerk, but he created that insane valuation. Uber has less than a year of runway left at their current burn rate. Unless they can find a bigger sucker than the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia,[1] they're going broke in 2018. (That "undisclosed amount" in 2017 isn't a significant investment on Uber's scale.) IPO? No way. They'd have to publish audited numbers. What's leaked out i…

It's not clear they'd survive regardless.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#604

Post by api » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 1:45 PM UTC

jordache wrote: post #479

baby wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You guys are talking about Uber dying, but I cannot fathom how this is possible from just the user's perspective. Uber seems to be everywhere, people take Ubers or driver for Ubers every day. How could a company this big fail? Stop growing maybe, but going bankrupt and shutting down?

There is nothing that differentiates Uber from lyft, or another ride hail company. Drivers could easily switch between the companies. Driverless tech will be the differentiation. Whoever gets there first, even in limited urban centers will win the taxi industry

> Whoever gets there first, even in limited urban centers will win the taxi industry

Why "win"? There's no moat. I suppose there will be patents, but those expire or can be worked around.

More likely is that whoever gets there first will make all the mistakes that others can learn from. Every major car company has a self-drive effort now. Apparently Tesla, GM, Ford, and BMW are pretty far along. Lyft has a few partnerships here. It's only a matter of time before most cars drive themselves to some degree.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#605

Post by HarryHirsch » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 1:47 PM UTC

smt88 wrote: post #103

camelite wrote: post #83

Should we believe men too when they're victimised by women, or is this a one way deal? What if it's a man and a woman accusing each other, or two men or two women. What if the dude is a historically oppressed minority?

We should also believe men, but that isn't a historical problem the way it is for women. As an exercise, ask a few men and women you know if they've ever been harassed or attacked at work. If they didn't report it, ask them why.

that isn't a historical problem the way it is for women

Any feminist will remind you that sexual harassment isn't about sex, it's about power. With more women in positions of power these days expect the number of harassment cases where men are the target to rise.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#606

Post by efuquen » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 1:48 PM UTC

kevinburke wrote: post #3

According to the article 5 different VC firms representing 40% of the voting shares asked him to resign today. Kalanick still controls the majority of voting shares and a board seat. Most of Kalanick's trouble started with Susan Fowler speaking out. Please believe women when they report harassment in the workplace. Many of their reports may not be as clear cut as Mrs. Fowler's.

If you go to a police station and report a murder do you think they'll a) investigate your claim or b) ignore you?

That is the sort of belief we're talking about, a serious investigation with the assumption the person reporting it is not lying. The investigation itself could of course result in not sufficient evidence being found. It's really not that complicated.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#607

Post by victorhooi » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 1:48 PM UTC

jmspring wrote: post #120

rmason wrote: post #12

Hope everyone's paying attention to the identity of these investors behind this horrid behavior. Travis is not without his flaws but he created an awful lot of value for them. They pressure him into taking a sabbatical, then two days in they pull this cowardly act of firing him remotely. Not only was it a cowardly act, but it was the wrong thing to do for the business. It will lead to an epic destruction of value. Wo…

Travis himself has exhibited poor public behavior that was recorded by an Uber driver. That in itself reflects upon the company. Yes his assertiveness and drive got them where they are, but sometimes companies do need to grow up. Jobs was a consistent asshole expecting perfection. That is way different than emboldening a climate of harassment, degradation, etc. that took place under his watch. Having recent external…

You assert that:

> Travis himself has exhibited poor public behavior that was recorded by an Uber driver

Do you have any evidence of this, or is this hearsay?

If you're referring to the video I suspect you might be - have you actually watched it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejZL5Flwmjc

All I see if a bitter, vindictive man try to ambush the CEO of Uber on a night out - who then actually sits down and tries to explain his reasoning to him for several minutes, before giving up, and being "stuff this" and getting out.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#608

Post by elicash » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 1:48 PM UTC

cgeier wrote: post #465

Somewhat off-topic: Why is something like Uber called ride-sharing to begin with? I'm not sharing my ride with anyone that coincidentally wants to travel (more or less) the same route as me. I pay somebody to drive their car first to me, and then some other place. This is called a taxi or cab [1], there Uber is a taxi company. At least in Germany, there used to be actual ride-sharing systems, of which the best one us…

Along these lines, Lyft started out as an actual ride-sharing platform with Zimride, until eventually the current model took off and they decided to sell the ride-sharing part of the company away.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#609

Post by emodendroket » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 1:48 PM UTC

2_listerine_pls wrote: post #558

Retric wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to grow when you sell dollars for 70c each. But, when you suddenly need to sell them for 1.01+$ nobody wants to buy. Uber's problem is taxi companies have lower overhead because among other thing their drivers sometimes get hailed by people at street level. Which means their either taxi prices are lower and people stop using Uber or they pay drivers more and drivers mostly stop working for Uber.

> Uber's problem is taxi companies have lower overhead because among other thing their drivers sometimes get hailed by people at street level. There is always demand for Uber/Lyft just because there isn't a taxi cab nearby 24/7. How is that difficult to understand?

Well, Uber, Lyft, or some other livery service.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#610

Post by ryanmarsh » Wed, Jun 21, 2017, 1:49 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #404

baby wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You guys are talking about Uber dying, but I cannot fathom how this is possible from just the user's perspective. Uber seems to be everywhere, people take Ubers or driver for Ubers every day. How could a company this big fail? Stop growing maybe, but going bankrupt and shutting down?

It's easy to grow when you sell dollars for 70c each. But, when you suddenly need to sell them for 1.01+$ nobody wants to buy. Uber's problem is taxi companies have lower overhead because among other thing their drivers sometimes get hailed by people at street level. Which means their either taxi prices are lower and people stop using Uber or they pay drivers more and drivers mostly stop working for Uber.

I travel a lot for work. Uber works in a lot of places where mass transit sucks and taxi service is nonexistent.

Even if they cost more I have no idea how I'm going to get around when I travel. The other options are so disgusting I'm not going back to that.

I would use them even if prices went up 30%.