Travis Kalanick isn't only the CEO of Uber. He also drives an Uber.
While appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Thursday night (September 10), Kalanick admitted to being an Uber driver ... and a good one at that, boasting a perfect 5.0 rating.
"I drive an Uber," Kalanick told Colbert. "It's just fun."
It's not like Kalanick drives an Uber to make a living, though, considering the company is worth upwards of $50 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal, but it's a cool fact nonetheless. Colbert also admitted that the first time he learned of Uber, he took one to the White House to attend a ceremony.
The conversation also had Kalanick tackling everything from Uber destroying the cab business to surge pricing and driverless cars.
In fact, he addressed autonomous vehicles by taking a shot at the cab industry.
"Google is doing driverless, Tesla is doing driverless, Apple is doing driverless," Kalanick said. "This is going to be the world. Do you want to be part of the future or do you want to resist the future? We don't want to be like taxis were for us."
Ouch. Speaking of the cab industry, and using New York City as an example, Kalanick suggested that people should look at the injustice that taxi companies sometimes command rather than Uber taking over their business.
"Just take New York — the taxi driver pays $40,000 to rent a car from the cab company," Kalanick said. "That should be a Bentley that you're riding around in."
A late-July Wall Street Journal report indicated that Uber had reached the $50-billion value mark faster than Facebook.
