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Uber CEO Mired With Escort Bar Visit
It has been more than a month since Uber CEO Travis Kalanick announced an investigation into claims of sexual harassment and discrimination within his company.
There are reports that in 2014, Kalanick senior VP of business Emil Michael and several other employees visited an escort-karaoke bar.
After the article revealing the escort bar visit was published, another report from Arizona revealed that one of the company's self-driving cars has been involved in an accident.
A story writer by Gabi Holzwarth, a professional violinist and business development manager who was dating Kalanick at the time, revealed that four other men in the group picked out their favorites from a group of numbered women and proceeded downstairs to sing karaoke.
Holzwarth and Uber CEO Kalanick left the rest of the group behind after about 45 minutes. A female Uber manager in the group was visibly unhappy, quickly left and made a report to HR about it a year later.
The incident has now become news, because in the last month the senior VP of business Emil Michael contacted Holzwarth in an attempt to stop the trip from becoming public knowledge, telling her to simply say they went to karaoke and had a good time.
An accident involving one of Uber's self-driving Volvo SUVs and Ford Edge recently occurred. There was serious damage along the passenger side.
Reports indicate that the Ford Edge failed to yield while making a left turn and collided with the self-driving car before a third car was hit by one of the first two vehicles.
No serious injuries have been reported. Uber is aware of the incident, it is yet to be established if the car was in self-driving mode at the time of the accident.
Uber has had two negative stories break almost simultaneously. The self-inflicted wounds have damaged the company's credibility.
The senior VP of business Emil Michael is also alleged to have openly discussed hiring investigators to dig up dirt.
California temporarily banned the Volvos which are currently in Arizona. Apparently, Uber and its executives, including the CEO have been involved in numerous controversies. It appears that they’ll never learn from past mistakes.
The issues surrounding Uber seem to be revolving around internal obliviousness within the workplace culture and the safety of the self-driving cars.
SOURCE: https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/25/uber-ceo-kalanick-self-driving-car-crash/