Taxis are terrifying.
Every taxi ride is a gamble; I have never stepped into cab without thinking that that is where I am going to die. The taxi industry is on its deathbed because it has failed to innovate. It rightly deserves to be on its way out the door. But Uber does not deserve our business in its stead.
You may have had a rad Uber driver once, like a driver who decked out his car with strobe lights and free gummy bears or just knew to keep small-talk to a minimum. The drivers are not the problem, they’re trying to hustle like anyone else out here. Uber itself is the problem — as a company it has a long and storied history of abuse and bullying.
The company's CEO, Travis Kalanick, fits the “Silicon Valley tech bro” stereotype to a tee. When talking about his success, he jokes about “boob-er” — his ability to get women on demand. Kalanick once lashed out at an Uber driver who confronted him over the falling rates and claimed to have lost $97,000 because of Uber. Kalanick blamed him for not taking responsibility for “his own s---.”
Kalanick’s terribleness is not a unique presence in Uber. Its upper management as a whole isn’t much better. The company spies on its users and denies rides to public officials looking to regulate the service. At an event attended by journalists, an Uber executive suggested spending a million dollars to fund opposition research on a journalist who criticized the company.
The company also has a history of ignoring sexual harassment. Several survivors have spoken out about the company's internal culture that fosters this sort of behavior. One female engineer wrote about how human resources was unresponsive to her claims of abuse, and that it didn’t want to pursue the issue as her abuser “was a high performer.” Other woman have added their voices and have told similar stories.
Uber places your life in the hands of a complete stranger, with the implicit promise that Uber has properly vetted whoever is behind that wheel. What that vetting process actually consists of is largely secretive. We do know that when Austin, Texas, passed a law that would bring Uber’s background checking process up to par with taxi companies, and instead of complying, Uber left the city.
Uber is a company built on skirting the law and ruthlessly undercutting its competitors. As a result, most Uber drivers don’t actually earn much more than the minimum wage, after you factor into the cost of insurance, gas, maintenance, taxes and the depreciating value of their car, things regular taxi drivers don't have to worry about. Working for Uber means you’re an independent contractor, all those expenses come out of your own pocket and it’s your job to figure out how much you owe in taxes.
Again, taxis are not perfect; they are, in fact, terrible. But Uber is a business built off skirting the law and it owes its success to a CEO who is as merciless as possible. The company claims to be nothing more than a software company, but no matter how hard it dances around the law, it is a taxi company and should follow the same regulations taxi companies do. When it offers subprime car loans to drivers but refuses to treat its employees with respect, then the company deserves the negative press and to be losing billions of dollars.