On Tuesday, it was revealed that Travis Kalanick, CEO of ride sharing company Uber since its 2009 founding, was asked to step down following a revolt of the company’s major investors, as The New York Times reports, though Kalanick will remain on its board of directors.
The resignation of the brash, headstrong entrepreneur comes after a recent announcement of an indefinite leave of absence following months of internal turmoil following a steady stream of very concerning accounts that detail a corporate culture that breeds sexism, misogyny, sexual harassment, and a wilful neglect to take those mounting problems seriously.
Uber has also been dabbling in autonomous vehicle technology to expand from its ride sharing model, partnering with Volvo and employing some star engineers into their fold. One of them was former Google employee Anthony Levandowski who was later found guilty of theft, absconding with intellectual property amounting to roughly 14,000 documents just before taking up the new position at Uber.
The company also came under fire from Apple earlier this year when it was discovered that the ride sharing app had been in violation of privacy rules by tracking user location when it wasn’t supposed to and unbeknownst to the user, prompting the iPhone-maker to threaten revoking their access iOS users via the App Store.
Earlier in its life, the company was infamous for its defiance against government regulation which at the time did not account for ride sharing services, as well as engaging in anti-competitive practices against rival services on many fronts and in many countries, an aggressive approach that was instilled by Kalanick from an early stage and has come to define the company in many, less public ways.
The departure of the 40-year old founder does leave an even larger vacuum at the top of the ride sharing giant, as the internal investigation brought about following a scathing, accurately recounted blog post by former Uber software engineer Susan Fowler (well worth a read) that went viral, resulting in the termination of at least 20 employees, including top executives Eric Alexander and Emil Michael….and now, by extension, Kalanick.
Uber’s current management is understandably more scattered at the moment, but are itching to move into calmer waters under new leadership. It’s surely a welcome reprieve from the hail of controversy that has plagued the company for the better part of two years. There are so far no solid reports on possible replacements as their next chief executive, and it remains unclear whether the company will hire from within or look outside its walls.
