Uber has been making headlines in recent weeks, and things aren't looking so good for the ride-hailing company.
A #DeleteUber campaign trended on Twitter earlier this year when the company lifted its surge pricing after a taxi union announced a strike in protest against President Donald Trump's travel ban. Not too long after that, the company found itself in hot water again after claims of sexual harassment were made against Uber's executives.
The Woman Who Started It All
Susan Fowler Rigetti, a former Uber software engineer, claimed that during her one-year stint with the company, she was propositioned to by her manager. When she reported the harassment, the HR manager did nothing about it.
Fowler also complained of subtle discrimination while she was still with Uber. She spoke of an instance when leather jackets were distributed all throughout the company but none were given to female employees because "there were not enough women in the organization to justify placing an order."
Amit Singhal
The success story of Amit Singhal, a well-regarded engineer at Silicon Valley, is quickly unraveling. After a decade-long stint at Google, Singhal started the year working for Uber.
Travis Kalanick, Uber's CEO, asked Singhal to leave after Recode broke out the news that he had failed to disclose a sexual harassment allegation made against him during his tenure at Google.
Keala Lusk
Keala Lusk, another former engineer at Uber, complained about the sexism and unprofessional behavior she received from her female manager. In a Medium post, Lusk said that she was informed by her superior that wearing a tank top to work was the reason she was not making any progress in her career.
Just like Rigetti, Lusk forwarded the incident to the HR department, to no avail.
Ed Baker
Ed Baker, vice president of product and growth, resigned from the company after reports of sexual misconduct. The executive was seen "making out" with an employee at a company event. Baker is the second high-level executive to resign after Singhal.
The Bad News Just Keeps Piling Up
Kalanick himself has not been spared of the controversy. A video surfaced of him having a heated exchange with an Uber driver. Fawzi Kamel, the driver, took the CEO to task for cutting down the drivers' fares. Kalanick did not take the criticism all too well and verbally lashed out at the driver.
More recently, reports say that Uber has been using a software called Greyball to identify authorities posing as regular passengers in cities where its services have been curtailed or banned. Once these sting operators have been detected by the software, the app will show fake cars. If these authorities did manage to book a ride, the faux driver will quickly cancel the said booking.
