Uber CEO backtracks on Khashoggi comment

Uber Technologies Inc. Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi said in an interview on the television show “Axios on HBO” that the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was “a mistake” by the Saudi Arabian government and compared it to Uber’s accident with a self-driving car that killed a woman.

In the interview that aired Sunday,

Khosrowshahi said, “It doesn’t mean they can never be forgiven.” The CEO backtracked in a follow-up statement to Axios after the interview, saying: “I said something in the moment that I don’t believe.” He called Khashoggi’s murder “reprehensible” and said it “should not be forgotten.”

The remarks set off calls for customers to protest the ride-hailing service. The hashtag #Boycott Uber was trending Monday on

Twitter in the U.S. The response is drawing parallels to a politically motivated boycott from 2017, when Uber’s perceived support of President Donald Trump and his immigration policies led to a #DeleteUber campaign. More than 200,000 people removed the app.

Khosrowshahi’s comments came during a discussion about Uber’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, the ride-hailing car company’s fifth-largest investor. The

Axios interviewer, Mike Allen, asked if Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan, who heads Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, should be allowed to remain on Uber’s board. Khosrowshahi called AlRumayyan a “very constructive” board member.

In March 2018, one of Uber’s cars testing autonomous driving software struck and killed a 49year-old woman in Tempe, Ariz., as she was crossing the road.