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Man, I don't know if Uber is evil or if most tech companies are evil and Uber just doesn't drop the kind of money on PR strategery that an evil company need to
by chakalakasp 9y ago
Man, I don't know if Uber is evil or if most tech companies are evil and Uber just doesn't drop the kind of money on PR strategery that an evil company need to drop in order to seem normal. But either way, holy cow does that company come off as toxic. They've completely revolutionized the drive-for-hire industry and all anyone ever hears about it what a D-bag their CEO is or how toxic and mysogonist their work environment is or how hard they work to spy on their employees and customers (to the point that the CEO of Apple had to have a Come To Jesus talk with the CEO of Uber) or how their employees feel like they are getting screwed or, now, how they are concealing massive data breaches. It's like how I imagine Uber would be if it was run by Magneto instead of Tony Stark.
- necessity 9y agoYou're watching too much CNN.
- edgarvaldes 9y ago>and all anyone ever hears about it what a D-bag their CEO is or how toxic and mysogonist their work environment is or how hard they work to spy on their employees and customers I don't think the average Joe is up to date with this news, or even care about.
- wingworks 9y agoNope, they don't know. My non-tech friends are all using Uber / UberEats with no clue about the company, and the CEO. They just see an easy to use app to get what they want quickly.
- wallace_f 9y agoSpeaking of politics, media influence and tech, a fair number of average joes have a terrible opinion of Musk/Tesla/SpaceX; but these same people are unaware, or maybe vaguely aware the US Gov spent >10billion, just in direct financial losses, bailing out GM. If everyone in the country was told "write a check to GM for $50 or go to jail," and conservative media wasn't berating Tesla/Musk, public opinion would be a lot different... Take it all with some healthy skepticism.
- drawnwren 9y agoIs conservative media berating Musk? I thought progressive media was souring on him?
- knowaveragejoe 9y agoIndeed they are: https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/11/breitbart-other-conservative-outlets-escalate-anti-spacex-campaign/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/11/breitbart-other-cons...
- drawnwren 9y agoInteresting. Thanks for the source.
- wallace_f 9y agoIt's been going on for years. Here is another article from last year: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/04/elon-musk-trolling-us-conservatives-green-tech https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/04/elon-musk... Also, Rush Limbaugh hates Musk (he has the #1 talk show since 1987... Since record-keeping began, so a lot of people are exposed to that negativity)
- veidr 9y agoI think it's more the "anti-fact" wing of the media (which does mostly overlap "conservative" on the Venn diagram). Unabashed alt-right agitprop outlets like Breitbart news, for instance, or climate change deniers. There are a couple different things at play. First, one plank in their infowar strategy is to combat anything that even indirectly propagates any understanding of climate change among the proles. They take positions even against more-efficient-than-incandescent light bulbs, so this line of attack certainly includes targeting electric cars and solar. Musk is obviously a celebrity of sorts in these areas. Any government help to build solar plants or subsidize non-fossil-fuel alternatives (e.g. electric vehicles) is portrayed as deeply corrupt, a betrayal of American values and working families, etc. Ergo, Musk is bad. Two, Elon Musk and John McCain have a strong association. Musk has supported McCain and in turn McCain has supported Musk and his business ventures. This is the kind of invest-in-politicians-who-can-help-you relationship that is pretty much a fundamental building block of how the American government works, but it always looks bad to somebody inclined to see it that way. (It's probably also objectively bad that this is how the system works, but anyway it is.) So I think a lot of conservative media that doesn't like McCain (because he is too "establishment" or whatever the reason) have repeatedly brought Musk into it, implying corruption on the part of McCain to help Musk use Russian rocket engines at SpaceX, for example. McCain is bad, ergo his sleazy buddy Musk is also bad.
- stochastic_monk 9y agoAll my friends have moved to Lyft -- not for political reasons, even. Just because Lyft is significantly cheaper in all the areas they live.
- ekianjo 9y ago> My non-tech friends are all using Uber / UberEats with no clue about the company, and the CEO Just like we don't know anything about the CEO of the product making your detergents, the CEO of the brand of clothes you purchase, the CEO of your oven at home... Not knowing about CEOs is rather the norm, not the exception, and ultimately if the product/service is good, the CEO does not matter for most people, or they are only going to care about it in passing and then return to their old habits. GoDaddy is still in business.
- 52-6F-62 9y agoDoes anybody have a link to a good source on this? I'm behind on this myself.
- chakalakasp 9y agohttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/23/technology/travis-kalanick-pushes-uber-and-himself-to-the-precipice.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/23/technology/travis-kalanic... https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/technology/uber-greyball-program-evade-authorities.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/technology/uber-greyball-... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/02/21/uber-hires-eric-holder-to-investigate-sexual-harassment-claims/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/02/2... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/06/uber-fires-employees-sexual-harassment-investigation https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/06/uber-fire... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-28/in-video-uber-ceo-argues-with-driver-over-falling-fares https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-28/in-video-... https://www.engadget.com/2017/09/08/uber-federal-investigation-hell-program/ https://www.engadget.com/2017/09/08/uber-federal-investigati... http://abcnews.go.com/US/uber-allowed-workers-spy-users-employee-alleges/story?id=44176802 http://abcnews.go.com/US/uber-allowed-workers-spy-users-empl... http://www.zdnet.com/article/uber-app-can-silently-record-iphone-screens-researcher-finds/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/uber-app-can-silently-record-ip...
- 52-6F-62 9y agoAmazing, Thanks! Funny, they opened a satellite office right near my apartment and I'd considered applying. Then I heard pretty disconcerting stuff about the environment, and now this. Dodged a bullet, I guess.
- morgante 9y agoI don't know. I've received a lot of flak for even using Uber from non-tech friends/dates recently. I think the continual tide of negative publicity is definitely having a material effect on their brand image.
- fjsolwmv 9y agoBecause they don't like the company or because they don't like newfangled apps?
- morgante 9y agoBecause they don't like the company. Most of them have switched to Lyft.
- woolvalley 9y agoDo you live outside of the bay area or seattle?
- morgante 9y agoYes, I live in NYC.
- bryanrasmussen 9y agoMagneto is pretty concerned with ethics and morality, I think Uber is more owned by Tony Stark on a particularly bad binge.
- cdaringe 9y agoTony is a changed man! He even voluntarily subjected himself to regulation. We need a new target.
- bryanrasmussen 9y agoI don't know, a lot of the stuff Uber has been doing under Stark seem pretty Skrull-y to me.
- krelian 9y agoUber is like the Donald Trump of corporations. It sets new ground in how openly vile you can be without any consequences. Just like Donald Trump the real danger is not in Uber itself but in whatever it will be that uses it as a role model.
- whatshisface 9y agoI'm not sure if that's an accurate analogy. Few politicians would want to find themselves working in the climate Trump has found in Washington, (if anything, he has proven that a groundswell of popular support can't unseat a party establishment). Also, it simply would be inaccurate to describe Uber's actions as impotent. Edit: allow me to replace the word "found" with "created." I was just using a figure of speech.
- bduerst 9y ago>Few politicians would want to find themselves working in the climate Trump has found in Washington I can think of a few: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2016#Other_major_candidates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_ele... If you think the current sitting POTUS is an innocent victim of politics, then I have a bridge to sell you. Uber has used similar PR tactics in the past to deflect/detract from their actions.
- mcny 9y ago> If you think the current sitting POTUS is an innocent victim of politics, then I have a bridge to sell you. Uber has used similar PR tactics in the past to deflect/detract from their actions. I think the point that the great great? grandparent top post was making is that whoever is in charge of dealing with the media at Uber is doing a horrible job. Also, I am sad that we don't talk about the policies and rather focus on the personal flaws. I think there would be a chance of a compromise if we debated on policy. I mean if we talk about just personality, what makes our Honorable Governor of New Jersey eligible for office? Not a fan of 45 but really I think politics has become too polarized.
- 9y ago
- nova22033 9y ago>to spy on their employees and customers To be fair, they weren't spying on their customers. They were fingerprinting phones which is against the Apple ToS.
- obmelvin 9y agoIn that case, yes. But they were definitely spying on journalists, law enforcement and other potentially critical users
- KKKKkkkk1 9y agoI haven't heard stories about how Uber employees are getting screwed. (Presumably financially?) Are you referring to Uber drivers in this comment?
- aaroninsf 9y agoProtip: Uber's own bullshit aside, their drivers are employees. Who are getting screwed.
- brightball 9y agoI never quite know how to think about them. On the one hand, they’d changed an entire industry in a way that people wanted but was getting serious resistance from the entrenched players. They had to break a lot of rules and go around a lot of people with a whole lot of connections to get where they are and in the process made a lot of enemies. I expect blowback. I expect negative news. They essentially pulled it off by looking at every day as combat where fighting dirty was rewarded.
- escot 9y agoYou can move fast and break things without being a jerk or a misogynist. They don't get an excuse because they mixed the two up.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- nemothekid 9y agoAirBnb had to fight a very similar path and the only bad press I can remember about them was that tone deaf/ offensive political marketing campaign they had.
- fjsolwmv 9y agoThey also spammed Craigslist users (violating TOS and basic manners) with emails from bots pretending to be women.
- netsharc 9y agoThere's been several articles about them shafting apartment owners, offering very little from their "insurance" for trashed apartments. In most cases the renters are sane people, but if you get the drug-fueled orgy, you can probably safe in betting that AirBnB will not compensate you for the cleanup.
- hanswesterbeek 9y agoAirBnb have their own issues, and plenty of bad press about cities popular with tourists crumbling under the load AirBnB are causing on their communities.
- knowThySelfx 9y agoNow with them investing heavily in self driving cars, they aim to avoid paying drivers.
- zouhair 9y agoAs much as I hate blaming the victim, but giving your personal info just to get a Taxi ride is utterly moronic. I don't want to have any relation of any sorts with a Taxi, I ride I pay and bye. Having to register for that is quite surreal.
- pimmen 9y agoAnd testing their self driving cars without getting the proper permits. And hiding shit like this from investors so they’ll lose a lot of money later. I would never work as an engineer for a company like that. How can I trust that it will honor any deal I make and not screw me? I have to think about that with every company but this one in particular can’t even spell ”integrity”.
- diebir 9y agoThat's silly. Uber has a revolving door with Google and Facebook. Nobody is getting screwed, or it would not work to hire people away.
- derwiki 9y agoGoogle and Facebook are publicly traded companies and stock can be sold immediately; I'm not sure we can say Uber is not screwing employees until there is a liquidation event (not counting the internal buy back program)
- pimmen 9y agoNobody's getting screwed yet. Nobody had their data stolen then covered up either, until they did. No investors were lied right into their face about this either, until they were. No women were harassed and had the events covered up either, until they were. If the company views engineers as better than other people and someone they wouldn't want to screw with, I'm not working there either on principle.
- diebir 9y agoThat concealing was a year ago. Now discovered by an internal investigation and disclosed. CEO has been different for a few months too.