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

nytimes.com

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

#731

Post by stephenr »

gregorymichael wrote: post #717
davidf18 wrote: post #701

Much of the resistance to Uber (such as laws that were broken, protests) were from entrenched interests. At least where I live in NYC, Uber was dramatically improving customer value while providing innovations that reduced greenhouse gas. It provided completion for the entrenched Yellow Cab monopoly with its very high rates. Sometimes Uber would have higher rates but then you could take a Yellow Cab instead. The Yell…

The previous market making mechanism for this industry was for a buyer to stand on a street corner, hold their hand up, and hope that a vendor who sold that service drove by. That's insane.

Do taxi companies in the US really not have apps or, you know, phones?

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

#732

Post by wcummings »

srj wrote: post #643
wcummings wrote: post #616

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In the US you constantly deal with the "I don't take cards" bullshit Sounds like a free ride, to me. In my city cabs have to accept credit cards by law . This means if the machine is broken, the cab is unfit for service. If a driver refuses to take a credit card, you don't have to pay them . If they're rude about it, you can call 911, there's a whole division of the PD dedicated to dealing with cabs. The threat of h…

Personally I prefer a simple feedback system that kicks out bad drivers to confrontation and a need to call 911. Not to mention that there's quite a gap between good service and service that complied with the law. If a driver is rude, swears at me, drives dangerously, what can I do about that? Spend part of my day calling a hackney division that probably doesn't care? A rating system is actually superior to getting t…

You might be right but I'm js you do have some recourse. You can file a complaint and your leisure. It only takes a couple complaints to trigger a fine.

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

#733

Post by hyyypr »

davidf18 wrote: post #701

Much of the resistance to Uber (such as laws that were broken, protests) were from entrenched interests. At least where I live in NYC, Uber was dramatically improving customer value while providing innovations that reduced greenhouse gas. It provided completion for the entrenched Yellow Cab monopoly with its very high rates. Sometimes Uber would have higher rates but then you could take a Yellow Cab instead. The Yell…

Pretty much the same here in Paris, France.

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

#734

Post by metaphorm »

ClassyJacket wrote: post #536
kevinburke wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people that report harassment are taking a big career risk (and if they go public like Mrs. Fowler did, inviting abuse from Internet mobs) by doing so, so yes, I'm going to default to believing people that report harassment unless I can find credible evidence it didn't happen.

How on Earth can someone possibly provide evidence a crime didn't happen?

in a criminal trial the most common form would be an alibi, which is proof that the accused was somewhere else and not in the place the crime occurred at the time the crime occurred.

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

#735

Post by macspoofing »

post_break wrote: post #563
macspoofing wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Please believe women when they report harassment in the workplace This meme is often repeated in context of sexual harrassment (workplace or otherwise). How do you square that with the fact that women are as capable of laying and misleading as men are? How do you square that with "innocent until proven guilty" when accusation are leveled against another individual or company.

He didn't say that women don't lie about harassment, just that they are taken more seriously. Similar to rape claims.

No. Nobody argues sexual harrassment claims shouldn't be taken seriously. Nobody argues rape claims shouldn't be taken seriously. Nobody. That's not what OP argued. It's a common meme to argue that claims of sexual harrassment and sexual assult should be assumed to be true. That's insane. It upends our entire notion of Justice.

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

#736

Post by theamk »

davidf18 wrote: post #701

Much of the resistance to Uber (such as laws that were broken, protests) were from entrenched interests. At least where I live in NYC, Uber was dramatically improving customer value while providing innovations that reduced greenhouse gas. It provided completion for the entrenched Yellow Cab monopoly with its very high rates. Sometimes Uber would have higher rates but then you could take a Yellow Cab instead. The Yell…

Absolutely true, but does this justify Uber's workspace culture, Waymo secrets, or sidestepping law enforcement (main reasons for Kalanick's resignation according to article)?

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

#737

Post by Bartweiss »

mhw wrote: post #437
danpalmer wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it comes down to just being lazy. Regardless of whether you've had good or bad experiences with Uber, you've had experiences, may have chatted to their support team, etc, and you know what to expect from the service and the company. The local alternative might be better, but it's an unknown.

So are the local restaurants when compared to McDonald's - I guess it all depends on what you want to get out of travel.

For me that's Uber (well, Lyft), but a local restaurant - I don't think it's a fair comparison. Getting somewhere in a cheap and timely way is often an instrumental issue, rather than "part of the travel experience". When it isn't, I'll happily walk, take the subway, etc.

This sort of reminds me of Usain Bolt in Beijing, actually. He lived on McDonald's chicken nuggets, not because he's averse to trying new things but because he couldn't risk anything upsetting his stomach during competition. For him, eating was instrumental, so he wanted predictability.

Even if you immersive travel, there are times when it's really useful to know what you'll get.

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

#738

Post by danjoc »

davidf18 wrote: post #701

Much of the resistance to Uber (such as laws that were broken, protests) were from entrenched interests. At least where I live in NYC, Uber was dramatically improving customer value while providing innovations that reduced greenhouse gas. It provided completion for the entrenched Yellow Cab monopoly with its very high rates. Sometimes Uber would have higher rates but then you could take a Yellow Cab instead. The Yell…

>Uber/Lyft have lowered greenhouse gasses

Citation required.

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

#739

Post by CydeWeys »

Bartweiss wrote: post #670
matt4077 wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't further this narrative that sexually harassing women and his general brohaviour are good for business. They are not. There are ways in which being an asshole ay be good for founders (cf Steve Jobs). Kalanick is just an asshole, and even take-no-prisoner ask-forgiveness-later businesses run much better with a bit of attention to human decency.

> even take-no-prisoner ask-forgiveness-later businesses run much better with a bit of attention to human decency I'm sort of baffled by seeing someone say this in a comment that's supportive of Steve Jobs. Are there tons of "the human decency of Steve Jobs" stories I've missed? Because I would have said that I've never heard of Jobs showing even a scrap of that, and it worked out pretty well for him. The things happ…

People like Steve Jobs weren't successful because they were assholes, they were successful in spite of it. Being manipulative, cruel, and dishonest do not help your business in the long run.

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

#740

Post by blackrose »

camelite wrote: post #653
blackrose wrote: post #614

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> or is this a one way deal? FFS, dude. Men hold the vast majority of power in our society. No cards are stacked against them. No old fashioned norms are still levied on them everytime a woman speaks to them. They aren't constantly reminded by our culture to be gentlemen or look handsome or bring home the bacon or do anything they don't want to. To say "think of the men!" here is either willfully ignorant or just bei…

> Men hold the vast majority of power in our society. No cards are stacked against them. If you "believe women who report sexual harassment", and more specifically, if you believe women who report sexual harassment in "less clear cut" scenarios than Susan Fowlers, then you are deliberately stacking the deck against the specific men who are accused of sexual harassment, some of whom will invariably be innocent. How mu…

> then you are deliberately stacking the deck against the specific men who are accused of sexual harassment, some of whom will invariably be innocent.

This is really a stretch in logic, and the oxymoronic "some of whom will invariably be innocent" gives away your motives on this topic.

Parent comment was saying we should give a little more credibility to reports that women make about sexual harassment in the workplace. It's a pretty good idea that would make everyone's lives better (even ours, the men!). But if your reaction to that mild suggestion is hostility and misleading arguments, you're contributing to the problem and encouraging more "manly" behavior that necessitates women's blog posts and company culture course-correction.

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