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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.

#861

Post by pascalxus »

soneca wrote: post #764
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…

So why Lyft get none of the protests? I think you are mixing unrelated subjects. Uber final product is good for society. And other companies can provide the same product (in my city, São Paulo, there are other 3 good companies in the same space). Uber practices as a company are toxic for its employees and some of the toxicity leak to society. If such calculation was possible, I believe it would show a net positive im…

if that's the case, you'd have to protest lots of start ups and companies in silicon valley. There's no shortage of toxic workplaces.

I think it's a good think to break down monopolies and open up competition.

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

#863

Post by davidf18 »

drewrv wrote: post #844
davidf18 wrote: post #806

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber under TK was criticized for breaking laws, but those laws were in place to protect incumbents from market entry. In NYC, were AirBnB does break NYC and NY State laws, Uber does not. It follows the rules of the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission. Except for the Mayor that tried to restrict Uber/Lyft for political reasons to help the incumbents, we New Yorkers welcome Uber/Lyft.

That was only one of the many things they were criticized for.

They made a big deal about an illegal app that was only necessary because unlike NYC, the other city(s) were trying to restrict the market competition. Uber never used that app in NYC because we welcome technology and competition and the special interests did not dominate the politicians.

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

#864

Post by davidf18 »

Analemma_ wrote: post #803
stale2002 wrote: post #772

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People keep saying that, and yet prices still haven't risen. I feel like a decade from now people are going to still be repeating this same old line. It also seems awesome. Why wouldn't I want VCs to give away a bunch of money to its customers? No, it is not going to run taxis permanently out of business. All you need is a car to do that. If this is really true, as soon as prices rise, another taxi company can start…

> People keep saying that, and yet prices still haven't risen. Uber is still losing money hand over fist. It has to come to an end at some point, either when they finally raise prices or they just go bankrupt. > It also seems awesome. Why wouldn't I want VCs to give away a bunch of money to its customers? A couple reasons: 1. VCs don't "give away money". They invest, with the expectation that their investment will be…

A lot of that money is going toward Uber/Lyft growing market share. But a lot of the overhead could disappear because so much of it is run by computers.

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

#865

Post by jpttsn »

ryandrake wrote: post #709
acjohnson55 wrote: post #590

I, for one, will consider using Uber again. It is very important to me to see a change in leadership. I simply couldn't square my use of the app with the sense that Uber was deeply unethical, starting from the top. Also, it's so disappointing to see so many people buy into the cult of personality of the Startup Founder. There's a lot of half-baked reasoning going on on why Uber's fate should be inexorable tied to Tra…

> Also, it's so disappointing to see so many people buy into the cult of personality of the Startup Founder. There's a lot of half-baked reasoning going on on why Uber's fate should be inexorable tied to Travis. So far, the two main arguments I've seen are "because Steve Jobs" and "he raised so much money for them". Neither one of these are compelling in explaining why Uber's survival prospects should be further dama…

It's probably not only one. But maybe it's not quite seven billion.

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

#866

Post by avar »

danans wrote: post #761
danjoc wrote: post #738

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Uber/Lyft have lowered greenhouse gasses Citation required.

Citation doubly required because if the net miles driven actually increases due to increased use of cars over public transit (very likely), and increased availability of transportation services overall, the greenhouse gas emissions would go _up_ if anything. There are situations where ride services would encourage public transit utilization (last mile services), but I'd guess those are far from the dominant use case.

There's plenty of people, myself included, who don't have a car but would otherwise probably get one if effortless car services on-demand like Uber didn't exist. You need to take that into account.

According to some estimates I've seen just constructing a car is equivalent to 3-4 years of carbon footprint of driving it[1][2].

You might say "buy used!". I would, but over the entire economy it would add up to the same amount, the net demand for new cars would increase.

1. https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-t...

2. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/20...

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

#868

Post by jpttsn »

btmiller wrote: post #245
necubi wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow -- I'm amazed to hear this sentiment. I'm personally proud that one of our VCs was involved. Travis helped build an incredible company, but his disregard for the law, for his employees' well-being, for basic decency threaten to tear all of that down. Just in the past six months: * Susan Fowler's blog post exposed a terribly broken HR system and a culture of sexual harassment that reached the very top. This has hu…

Agreed. Whether or not your listed events are the exact same set of reasons for his ousting, it's a good thing for our industry that his brand of unethical leadership is being shown the exit. As if TK is the only leader than can deliver the same type of value. Good riddance! Lyft just got their opportunity, hopefully they learn from Uber's mistakes.

Are you saying someone else can deliver the same value as TK (so Uber is fine), or are you saying Lyft just got their opportunity (so Uber is not fine)?

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

#869

Post by mtalantikite »

CPLX wrote: post #812
davidf18 wrote: post #802

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This idea that there "were no taxis" in the boroughs and now there are is ridiculous. The few times I tried to take those services the service was horrible, horrible. Now, thankfully, Uber is available and they have much better service and they have a single identifiable reliable brand and they take credit cards. Uber pool where unrelated riders ride in the same car are going to have less greenhouse gas than riders…

> I actually live there and there are no Yellow Cabs in the outer boroughs. I am writing this from Brooklyn, where I have lived for about 20 years. > Before Uber there was no hailable service. There still isn't. Street hails are only from medallion cabs, plus the green outer borough cabs which came just a little bit before Uber showed up and are still around. There wasn't street hailing before and there isn't now. Th…

I used to use Arecibo all the time, it was pretty much as easy to get a car as with Uber: they answered immediately and a car was typically at your door in 5 minutes.

Things I miss about those pre-Uber days:

- The drivers knew exactly where to go just off of an intersection. If you told them you were going to Tompkins and Hancock, they'd get you there often without needing to ask any clarifying questions. Now drivers have no idea where anything is.

- Music in cars from the driver's collection. Hearing random cumbia or ghazals or hip hop. It made you feel like you were in New York. Now drivers are catering to a generic millennial audience and all I hear is bad top 40.

- Overall just how human the interactions with drivers felt. I once had a driver come up into a house party with us, and ended up having a very weird/memorable night. Now everything is sanitized and rarely do I get a driver from Uber or Lyft that is willing to even have much of a real conversation for fear of getting a bad rating.

I don't miss the need to negotiate price or the need to pay in cash. The apps are also cheaper for the most part. I do miss the gritty New York.

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

#870

Post by cocktailpeanuts »

rimliu wrote: post #408
cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it pretty much sold by itself -- similar to how Zuckerberg created Facebook, which sold by itself. Haha don't know where to start. Facebook could have gone to shit in so many ways just like all the predecessors like Myspace and Friendster, but they made all the right decisions and won. Same goes for Uber.

Ok, what is Facebook's Lyft then?

Uber and Lyft operate in a space where there's a huge barrier to entry capital-wise.

This is not the case for 100% Internet based businesses like Facebook.

So they're really completely different models and therefore the competitive landscape can't resemble each other. It's more fair to compare the Uber-Lyft dynamic to rental car businesses like Enterprise-Hertz.

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