It has really not been a good couple of weeks for ride-hailing company uber. The company has been dealing with the fallout from an ex-engineer’s claims of a culture of rampant sexism in the company that has sparked the return of the #deleteuber campaign. It has also been dealing with a lawsuit from Google’s self-driving company Waymo over the alleged theft of intellectual property. To top it all off, a video of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has emerged online which shows him yelling at an Uber driver in what appears to be an argument over ride fares. Kalanick has now publicly apologized for his behavior.
Bloomberg posted the video which showed Kalanick yelling at an Uber driver. The CEO later published a blog post in which he says that he’s ashamed of his actions and that he’s going to seek leadership help.
“My job as your leader is to lead, and that starts with behaving in a way that makes us all proud. That is not what I did, and it cannot be explained away,” he writes, adding that the video is a reflection of him and that he recognizes the need to “fundamentally change as a leader and grow up.”
Kalanick says that this is the first time he’s been willing to admit that he needs leadership help and that he intends to get it. Kalanick hasn’t detailed precisely how he’s going to go about this. Whether executives from within the company will be promoted to similar positions of leadership or whether he’s work with external figures to try and make amends.
A lot has been said and written about Uber’s culture recently and this video really doesn’t help the company’s image.
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