Uber CEO Travis Kalanick gets a one-star from his Uber driver

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A video obtained by Bloomber g showed the ugly side of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick who was involved in a heated altercation with a bankrupt Uber driver over decreasing fares. Bloomberg states that video was taken on 5th February and shows Kalanick riding at the back seat of Uber Black with two female friends grooving to a Maroon 5 song and as the trip ends and his friends step out of the car, the driver, Fawzi Kamel took the chance he had been waiting for and engaged him in a conversation.

It’s no big news that Uber’s fares have fallen over the years since its inception in 2009. And that has naturally resulted in a lot of its contractual drivers losing a lot of money. Even in New Delhi, drivers from both Uber and its Indian rival Ola Cabs had gone on a strike protesting against the falling prices . But Kalanick was not having any of it. According to him, it’s nothing personal. All business. Kamel cornered him about how Uber’s fares saying, “You’re raising the standards, and you’re dropping the prices.”

Kalanick refused to agree that Uber Black, the high-end service the company launched back in 2010, went through a fare-cut. But when Kamel said in general the whole price is falling, he retorts saying “We have to; we have competitors; otherwise we’d go out of business.”

Kamel said mockingly, “Competitors? Man, you had the business model in your hands. You could have the prices you want, but you choose to buy everybody a ride.”

Then Kalanick tried to calmly explain. “No, no no. You misunderstand me. We started high-end. We didn’t go low-end because we wanted to. We went low-end because we had to because we’d be out of business.”

Kamel brought up Lyft in the conversation. “What? Lyft? It’s a piece of cake right there.” And Kalanick who never misses out on an opportunity to brag about his company’s success replied saying, “It seems like a piece of cake because I’ve beaten them. But if I didn’t do the things I did, we would have been beaten, I promise.”

Then Kamel diverted the conversation to his losses. He said, “But people are not trusting you anymore. … I lost $97,000 because of you. I'm bankrupt because of you. Yes, yes, yes. You keep changing every day. You keep changing every day.”

This seemed to make Kalanick flare up. “Hold on a second, what have I changed about Black? What have I changed?”, he charged.

“You changed the whole business. You dropped the prices,” Kamel tried to push his point. “On black?”, Kalanick asked. “Yes, you did,” Kamel emphasised. And that’s when Kalanick lost it. “Bullshit!”, he said.

Facts come to Kamel’s rescue. “We started with $20.”

“Bullshit”, Kalanick said once again, this time visibly pissed.

Kamel tried to drive his point further home. “We started with $20. How much is the mile now, $2.75?”

And then the Uber CEO gave his two-cents worth of thought. “You know what? Some people don't like to take responsibility for their own shit. They blame everything in their life on somebody else. Good luck!” He leaves slamming the door behind him.

Kamel dropped one last bomb. “Good luck to you, but I know [you're not] going to go far.” And as the Uber app asks him to rate his passenger, he proceeds to give his boss a one-star.

It’s nothing new how Kalanick likes to charge hard and be fiercely competitive. This is the guy who bragged about being the second-greatest player of Nintendo Wii-U’s tennis game. His employees have mentioned before about how tyrannical he can get and how he loves to fight over a good idea. And to an extent, his competitiveness have given Uber an edge over his rivals. In the argument, he even says that it was because of aggressive price-cutting that has kept Lyft out of Uber’s territory. But then, after Bloomberg published the article, fearing a backlash once again, Kalanick sent out a memo to all his employees which was then posted on the Uber blog apologising profusely for his behaviour. The memo read:

“By now I’m sure you’ve seen the video where I treated an Uber driver disrespectfully. To say that I am ashamed is an extreme understatement. 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.

I want to profoundly apologise to Fawzi, as well as the driver and rider community, and to the Uber team.”

Clearly, Uber is in deep shit. And after its loyalists. 200,000 of them who uninstalled the app for Uber’s decision to operate in airports when Donald Trump’s executive order to ban immigrants from muslim-majority countries to enter America even when the taxi association refused to provide service; and the sexual harassment allegation that shook Uber's internal confidence; and now it seems even Uber’s most prized asset, its drivers, who actually scores the moolah Uber is currently swimming in, is rising up against it.

Disclosure: Times Global which is the parent brand behind Gizmodo India has also invested in Uber.