[blaufast]

I had lunch with an early Uber employee (male) who told me 'wokeness killed uber'. He said the famous cultural issues "weren't real", an if TK hadn't been ousted they'd have destroyed Lyft completely in a few months.

A couple of months before the self driving car killed a pedestrian in Arizona, a drunk engineer from that team told me 'everybody is lying on their human intervention reports to the state, that's just how the sausage is made'

Late Uber produces seriously impressive technology and mature, reliable services. Early Uber was so errr.. problematic... that I'd be hesitant to wear that as a badge.

[texmex123456]

The cultural issues were overblown out of proportion with a clear agenda to bring Uber down. The delete Uber campaign was also pre-meditated to malign the company by associating it with trump election.

[myhrvold]

Yes the beginning was in late January 2017, involving a taxi strike at a NYC area airport and Uber's messaging around continuing to operate to serve the airport and surge pricing. That's how the delete Uber hashtag arose and it just continued with wave after wave of negative stories for the next few months.

The whole way things unfolded subsequently (due to several other pile-ons in following weeks, and eventually TK's ouster in mid 2017) still seems surreal to this day.

(I worked at Uber for ~5 yrs and remember this time period well.)

[isityouyesitsme]

this is a half truth.

everybody was lying on their takeover reports. EXCEPT Uber.

Uber was banned from California because they refused to lie, and refused to be made to look stupid compared to the companies who WERE lying, and who have literally decapitated multiple people while their vehicle was in control.

my time with Uber was rocky, and I had many qualms. I left partially because I didn't want to be part of the culture that produced Herzberg's death. but this specific thing is not one they should be criticized for.

the cultural issues were real. that's fair to say.

[circles_for-day]

I think you may have been given an official line. Uber loved claiming Lyft was using its dirty tricks in the early days too, even though Lyft was entirely incapable of that kind of thing

[ambicapter]

> and who have literally decapitated multiple people while their vehicle was in control.

Do you have more on this?

[rapfaria]

What were TK's strengths in this case?

[jhatemyjob]

Susan Fowler killed Uber.

[blindriver]

Everything Susan Fowler said was verifiable true. Thuan Pham himself confirmed the details in an all-hands. She didn't kill Uber at all. The reaction to it killed Uber. The culture got gutted by incentive changes and turned it into a promo-chasing culture which killed the engineering excellence it once had.

[cafard]

And yet it is still operating.