Uber Chief Apologizes After Leaked Video Of Him Arguing With Rideshare Driver

Uber boss Travis Kalanick issued an apology for his behavior following a video of him lashing out at his own rideshare driver.

The Los Angeles Times said the video showed Kalanick in a heated conversation with driver Fawzi Kamel over Uber’s fares. Kamel, who said that the fares were too low, claimed that he lost USD97,000 and is bankrupt because of it. Towards the end of the conversation, Kalanick appeared pissed and said this using a vulgarity, “You know what? Some people don’t like to take responsibility for their own [problems]. They blame everything in their life on somebody else. Good luck!”

Since the video became public, Kalanick released an email, which was later published on the company blog. Part of the email read, “By now I’m sure you’ve seen the video where I treated an Uber driver disrespectfully. To say that I am ashamed is an extreme understatement. 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.”

The video, which was first reported by Bloomberg, is another one of the growing concerns that puts the company’s future in jeopardy, the Atlantic said. Uber has recently been plagued with a damning testimony of an ex-employee over the company’s culture of pervasive and systematic sexism, a federal case involving the company’s head of self-driving cars, and the resignation of Uber’s senior vice president of engineering over his non-disclosure of a sexual-harassment complaint filed against him when he previously worked at Google.