Uber: How The Mighty Have Fallen

                   by David Parmer/Tokyo

Sometimes it seems poor UBER just can’t catch a break. Bad news after bad news seems to head their way. The ride-hailing service just got banned from the country of Italy. A judge citing unfair competition ruled against the west-coast company. So no Roman holiday for UBER.

UBER is not doing so good at home either. Employee Susan Fowler has charged UBER with allowing sexual harassment to exist and not taking proper action, citing her own alleged sexual harassment as an example.

A “bro” culture that dismisses a visit to a Korean karaoke club cum escort service as old news seems to be out of touch with the 21st century. Add to this a lawsuit over technology for autonomous vehicles, i.e. self-driving cars where Waymo claims UBER is using stolen tech, and the pressure gets heavier.

Then there is this: UBER’s founder Travis Kalanick who was caught on camera berating an UBER driver and then having to make a public apology. With all of the above one might think that Mr. Kalanick might be on his way out and looking for the NEXT thing. But no, apparently something called a dual-class share structure lets the founder have more votes than other board members. So Mr. Kalanick is going nowhere soon.

You might also ask what lesson can be learned from the ongoing UBER saga. And it seems to be this–if you have a lock on the newest development in tech, you can be a jerk and run your company any way you wish, and at the end of the day wave your index finger and shout “We’re #1!” For a while.

Italy bans UBER: The Verge

UBER to investigate sexual  harassment C/NET

Why UBER won’t fire its CEO backchannel

Photo: J.D. Lasica via flickr