Uber CEO argument on video

When Uber CEO Travis Kalanick takes an Uber, he prefers a black car, the high-end service his company introduced in 2010. On this particular night in early February — Super Bowl Sunday — Kalanick is perched in the middle seat, flanked by two female friends. Maroon 5’s “Don’t Wanna Know” plays, and Kalanick shimmies.

One of his companions appears to say, somewhat inaudibly, that she’s heard that Uber is having a hard year. Kalanick retorts, “I make sure every year is a hard year.” He continues, “That’s kind of how I roll. I make sure every year is a hard year. If it’s easy, I’m not pushing hard enough.”

There’s no question that it’s

been a hard year for Kalanick and Uber — or really, a bad year compressed down into an awful three months. And it keeps getting worse. That pleasant conversation between Kalanick and his friends in the back of an Uber Black? It devolved into a heated argument over fares between the CEO and his driver, Fawzi Kamel, who turned over a dashboard recording of the conversation to Bloomberg.

Kamel, 37, has been driving for Uber since 2011 and wants to draw attention to the plight of drivers. The video shows off Kalanick’s pugnacious personality and short temper, which may cause some investors to question whether he has the disposition to lead a $69 billion company that does business all over the globe.

In an email to staff Tuesday after the video was published, Kalanick apologized to Kamel. “To say that I am ashamed is an extreme understatement,” Kalanick wrote. “My job as your leader is to lead — and that starts with behaving in a way that makes us all proud. That is not what I did, and it cannot be explained away. It’s clear this video is a reflection of me — and the criticism we’ve received is a stark reminder that I must fundamentally change as a leader and grow up. This is the first time I’ve been willing to admit that I need leadership help and I intend to get it.”

The bad year includes more than 200,000 people uninstalling their accounts after the company was accused of undermining a New York taxi union strike protesting President Trump’s refugee ban; Kalanick leaving his spot on Trump’s business advisory council to appease employees and users; a former software engineer writing a blog post alleging that she had been propositioned for sex by her manager, a complaint she said Uber’s human resources department brushed off; rival Waymo accusing an Uber employee of stealing trade secrets; and Uber’s head of engineering resigning after the company said it learned that he had faced a sexual harassment complaint at Alphabet, his former employer (he denied the allegations).

Despite it all, Uber’s business is growing, week after week. This is the service that Kalanick dreamed up with a friend. Get a car in an instant, just like James Bond. They weren’t the first people to have that idea, but they were the ones who won — or at least the ones who have made the most progress. Kalanick turned Uber into a global endeavor that operates in more than 400 cities. The company, which has its headquarters in San Francisco, has more than 11,000 corporate employees. It has many more drivers — millions of them, scattered all over the world.

And the gig has become harder for longtime drivers. In 2012, Uber Black cost riders $4.90 per mile and $1.25 per minute in San Francisco, according to an old version of Uber’s website. Today, Uber charges $3.75 per mile and 65 cents per minute.

Kalanick has a reputation for being ferociously competitive. He once bragged about having earned the secondhighest rank on Nintendo’s Wii tennis game. He’s still dogged by the fact that he once referred to Uber as “Boob-er” because it improved his dating prospects. Current and former employees say he can be empathetic when the mood strikes — or tyrannical when it doesn’t.

Kalanick, 40, is trying to be a better listener. He met with more than 100 female employees in an effort to address the morale crisis that followed the former engineer’s blog post. But even when Kalanick tries to empathize in his own way — which often means jumping into a dialectical argument — his temper can flare.

In Kamel’s car, Kalanick is seemingly at ease as the ride ends and his friends hop out of the car.

“You have a good one,” says the driver.

Kalanick says with an air of familiarity, “Good to see you man.”

Kamel replies, “Good to see you, too.”

Kalanick thinks the ride is over. But having the CEO in his car is an opportunity Kamel has been waiting for.

The pair begin talking shop, and Kalanick explains that they’re going to cut down on the number of black cars, which will reduce competition and should be good for Kamel.

Then Kamel says what every driver has been dying to tell Kalanick: “You’re raising the standards, and you’re dropping the prices.”

Kalanick: “We’re not dropping the prices on black.”

Kamel: “But in general the whole price is —”

Kalanick: “We have to; we have competitors. Otherwise, we’d go out of business.”

Kamel steers the conversation back to his losses.

Kamel: “But people are not trusting you anymore. I lost $97,000 because of you. I’m bankrupt because of you.”

Kalanick begins to lose his temper and swears.

Kamel: “We started with $20. How much is the mile now, $2.75?”

Kalanick: “You know what?” Kamel: “What?” “Some people don’t like to take responsibility” for their own problems, Kalanick says. “They blame everything in their life on somebody else. Good luck!”

Kamel: “Good luck to you, but I know (you’re not) going to go far.”

The door slams. Kamel drives away. Later, the Uber driver app prompts him to rate Kalanick, as he does all his riders. Kamel gives him one star.