Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, who was ousted from the company he started, reportedly said “this is bad” when reviewing a video of him arguing with an Uber driver, while also allegedly writhing on the ground.
“I’m terrible,” he muttered, according to source in a lengthy exposé from Bloomberg, as “he literally got down on his hands and knees and began squirming on the floor.”
Around the time of the incident early in 2017, Kalanick felt compelled to send an apology to the roughly 11,000 employees at his company. The video in question, which was obtained by Bloomberg, was recorded by driver Fawzi Kamel, who decided to spark up a conversation with the Uber bigwig, who is also technically his employer.
Kamel, who had been driving for since 2011, took the opportunity with the former boss to share how he thinks the company could have been better run.
“You’re raising the standards, and you’re dropping the prices,” Kamel asserts, arguing that the cost of rides is far too cheap.
At first, Kalanick seems courteous, calm and more than willing to engage with his driver.
“We have to; we have competitors. Otherwise, we’d go out of business,” Kalanick replies, implying that he feels competitors like Lyft and other smaller startups would have taken over the market if Uber didn’t attempt to undercut them, and offer consumers even lower prices.
“Competitors? Man, you had the business model in your hands. You could have the prices you want, but you choose to buy everybody a ride,” Kamel continued.
The conversation soon turned into a constructive and analytical back-and-forth, to a personal and acrimonious war of words.
Kalanick eventually called “bullshit” on Kamel’s assertions.
“You know what? Some people don’t like to take responsibility for their own shit. They blame everything in their life on somebody else. Good luck!” Kalanick says while exiting the car.
Kamel had it all on tape, and Kalanick soon seemed to regret his actions, although at the time it was conceivable that it could have just been an acquiescence to public pressure.
“By now I’m sure you’ve seen the video where I treated an Uber driver disrespectfully,” Kalanick wrote in an official apology published on Uber’s website many months ago. “To say that I am ashamed is an extreme understatement.” (RELATED: Uber CEO Stops Using His Own Service After Viral Argument With Driver, Says Report)
But with Bloomberg’s latest report, it appears that Kalanick actually grew very remorseful for sticking up for his business decisions to a grumbling driver.
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