Uber Files whistleblower: It’s about making amends, doing the right thing

What exactly were you hired to do at Uber?

I was hired to lead a team of people to develop and implement our strategy to lobby governments across Europe, across Africa, across the Middle East, so we could enter the market and grow, despite in most cases the rules not allowing Uber to operate.

Were you aware that Uber was flouting the law in cities and countries in which there were licensed taxi regulations?

In most countries under my jurisdiction Uber was not allowed, was not authorised, was not legal.

So the strategy was to knowingly break the law and then change the law?

The mantra that people repeated from one office to another was the mantra from the top, so don’t ask for permission, just launch, hustle, enlist drivers, go out, do the marketing and quickly people will wake up and see what a great thing Uber is.

How difficult was it for you to get meetings with presidents, prime ministers, chancellors, city mayors, for Uber?

It was unprecedented in my career to have such easy access to senior members of government… Uber was at the time in the tech world, perhaps in the broader business world, the hottest ticket in town and to a certain extent, both on the investor side and also on the political side, people were almost falling over themselves in order to meet with Uber and to hear what we had to offer.

The meetings you and other Uber executives had with UK cabinet ministers were never declared. Why?

…Everyone has friends, and people were accepting requests from their friends, and people were reciprocating, and it was in no one’s interest for that to come to fore, for that to be made public… These are the cosy networks that have existed for so long but still manage to change shape, but still exist. Access to power is not something that is democratised.

Uber’s former chief executive, Travis Kalanick, responded to strikes by taxi drivers (against Uber) by ordering a counter protest. When company executives warned it could result in attacks on Uber drivers, Kalanick replied “I think it’s worth it. Violence guarantee[s] success.” What did he mean?

I think he meant that the only way to get governments to change the rules, and legalise Uber and allow Uber to grow, as Uber wished, would be to keep the fight, to keep the controversy burning. And if that meant Uber drivers going on strike, Uber drivers doing a demo in the streets, Uber drivers blocking Barcelona, blocking Berlin, blocking Paris, then that was the way to go.

Isn’t that dangerous?

Of course it’s dangerous. It’s also, in a way, very selfish. Because he was not the guy on the street who is being threatened, who is being attacked…and in some cases shot… I started getting shouted at at airports, train stations… Taxi drivers were following me around, recording where I lived, they were banging on the door, posting pictures online of me with friends, with kids of my friends. I started to get death threats on Twitter. So Uber said, ‘Okay, we need to protect you.’ So they forced me to have bodyguards anytime I left my home, which was all the time since I was travelling all the time.

…The anger and hatred that I witnessed firsthand, I don’t hold it against those people who were doing it. Here’s a company that was willing to break all the rules, and use its money and its power…to destroy their livelihoods, so they needed somebody to be angry at… I became that person.

How would you respond to the suggestion that you’re leaking this material out of vengeance against the company?

I think people need to look at the facts that I’m helping to expose. Certainly I have had my grievances with Uber in the past. What I’m doing isn’t easy, but I believe it’s the right thing.

Do you feel partly responsible or culpable for the lives you see drivers now living?

Yes, I do. And I am partly responsible, and that’s my motivation for doing what I’m doing in being a whistleblower… It’s about making amends. It’s about doing the right thing. Look, I own what I did, but if it turns out that what I was trying to persuade governments, ministers, prime ministers, presidents and drivers, turned out to be horribly, horribly wrong and untrue, then it’s incumbent upon me to go back and say, ‘I think we made a mistake.’

Edited excerpts; Courtesy: The Guardian