Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped describes “burnout at all levels of the company” because “Uber employees were always sprinting.” He continues: “They kept working even after they went home, terrified of both their competitors and their bosses. … [S]ome engineers and designers were seeing therapists to deal with the strain.” (p.36)
Excesses at Las Vegas party
Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped reports excesses at an Uber employee event in Las Vegas. Total cost exceeded $25 million in cash plus $6 million of stock to performer Beyonce. In addition to transportation and lodging payments, each employee received a prepaid Visa card with additional spending money. An employee called the event “baller as fuck.”
Yet Uber’s communications leaders realized the risk to the company of such a lavish celebration. Employees were banned from wearing Uber apparel, and the Uber logos on corporate email accounts were removed so that a bystander glancing at devices would not know which company was spending so freely.
(pp. 26-29)
Employee stole a party transportation shuttle
Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped reports that an employee stole a party transportation shuttle and joyrode it with other Uber employees who wanted a good time (p.27).
Employees hired a prostitute at a company event, leading to theft of work laptops
Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p.27) describes occurrences at an Uber employee event in Las Vegas:
One employee hired a pair of prostitutes to join him in his hotel room. The next morning, he and his roommate woke up with all of their belongings stolen, including their work laptops.
Manager groped a team member
Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p.27) reports that “A Los Angeles general manager was fired in 2015 for groping the breasts of one of his team members.”
Outrageous Miami party required pointed instructions to employees
Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped describes a large party Uber hosted for employees — where company leaders anticipated such problematic behavior that they had sharp guidance for employees:
[Kalanick] went on to advise his staff not to throw large kegs off of tall buildings, and mandate no interoffice sex unless coworkers explicitly stated “YES! I will have sex with you” to one another. He also noted that ny puking on hotel grounds would result in a $200 fine. The email set the tone for the rest of the retreat.
(p.23)
New York City Councilors regretted their decision not to restrain growth of Uber
In 2015, the New York City Council declined to proceed with Mayor De Blasio’s proposal to cap the number of new Uber drivers (in part based on Uber’s vigorous advocacy). Looking back on that decision, the new Speaker of the New York City Council, Corey Johnson told WNYC radio that he had chosen the wrong approach. In particular, he explained, “given what we’ve seen and the explosive growth of this industry and how it’s affected the streets of New York City, I think we should have done more.”
Opposed De Blasio plan to limit number of vehicles
Concerned about growing congestion, New York City Mayor De Blasio proposed a bill to limit the issuance of new for-hire vehicle licenses. The proposal would have limited Uber to about 200 new drivers in New York during the subsequent year.
In response, Uber alerted its New York Customers — creating a “De Blasio’s Uber” feature that always showed either no cars available or a wait time of 25 minutes. With a single button, users could email the mayor and city council to send a form letter prewritten by Uber.
Uber also sent emails to all Uber users in the district of New York Councilman Steve Levin who was sponsoring the bill. And Uber investor Ashton Kutcher Tweeted to criticize the proposal — as did Neil Patrick Harris, who had made money by Tweeting Uber signup links, as well as Kate Upton.
All told, Uber spent $1 million lobbying New York city government officials to defeat the driver cap bill.
Uber “software bug” led self-driving car to hit pedestrian
Uber researched the March 2018 incident in which an Uber self-driving vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona. Uber found that the vehicle’s onboard sensors did in fact detect the woman in the vehicle’s path, but the vehicle’s software incorrectly decided shew as a “false positive” and that the car did not need to stop for her.
Experts on self-driving car technologies said a tradeoff is required, between smooth rides and jerky stop-and-start to pause for potential objects.
Victims of sexual assault, rape, harassment, and gender-motivated violence criticized Uber’s arbitration clause
Fourteen victims of sexual assault, rape, harassment, and gender-motivated violence criticized Uber’s arbitration clause, which prevented them from bringing lawsuits about the harm they suffered. Their letter to Uber’s Board of Directors asked that Uber remove (or agree not to enforce) its arbitration clause as to these complaints. They noted a California case in which Uber aggressively sought to force one of their complaints into confidential arbitration. They also noted pending legislation in the United States Congress and New York State Senate that would disallow companies from requiring victims of sexual harassment or assault to proceed in arbitration.
News coverage from The Mercury News and Recode.