Uber didn't deserve #DeleteUber

Dan Primack
Jan 30

Featured

Uber didn't deserve #DeleteUber

Axios

Uber has done a lot of questionable things over the years, but its actions this past weekend vis-a-vis Trump's immigration ban weren't among them. An actual timeline from Saturday, which may differ from what you saw on social media:

4:20pm ET: Uber CEO Travis Kalanick sent email to employees. It stopped short of explicitly opposing the ban, but did say: (1) The company would identify and compensate affected drivers. (2) Kalanick will raise the issue of how the "ban will impact many innocent people" this Friday during the first meeting of Trump's so-called CEO Council. This email was posted a short time later to Kalanick's public Facebook page.
4:55pm ET: NY Taxi Workers union called for a work stoppage at JFK airport from 6pm-7pm. Uber does not suspend its own service, but also does not send out any promotions.
7:36pm ET: Uber NYC sends out a tweet, saying that surge pricing to and from JFK has been turned off.

The claim that Uber was trying to "break the strike" by sending out its surge pricing tweet is belied by the timing (i.e., sent after the strike was to have ended).

Keep reading ... words

And while it is true that Kalanick has agreed to be a member of Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum, it's also true that execs from both Uber and Lyft have agreed to sit on a new automation advisory council set up by Trump's Department of Transportation. Either a pox on both their houses, or a pox on none.

Axios reached out to Uber PR on Saturday night for a preliminary number of affected drivers, but it has not yet replied. No matter the ultimate number, it's the right thing to do. Kudos, not condemnation.

Show less

Jonathan Swan
2 hrs ago

Featured

Trump and Putin get what they came for

Evan Vucci / AP

Trump and Putin perfectly staged their first meeting so that both men could get what they needed out of it, politically.

"The deal": Sources close to Trump told us he went into the meeting believing it was still possible to strike a deal with Russia. Now we have a better understanding of what that means: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says they spent a good amount of the meeting discussing a solution to the Syrian conflict, and we saw a gift-wrapped victory, with the post-meeting announcement of a ceasefire. Tillerson held out the possibility of larger cooperation — which should be understood as possibly a deal that would encompass fighting ISIS together and resolving the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Keep reading ... words

Best of both worlds...

Sources who've spoken to Trump privately over the past few months say he's never fully bought into the intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered in the election to help him win. He believes to his core it's a politically-motivated "fake" attack by Democrats.
Still, Trump's advisers knew that if he didn't "confront" Putin over the election hacking then that would be the headline in every newspaper and on every cable news show after the meeting. It would drown out everything else they discussed and accomplished.
So Trump took a middle course: he raised the issue with Putin but Tillerson made clear in his briefing after the meeting that Trump has no intention of continuing to litigate the issue. They want to move on, Tillerson said.

Putin got what he wanted: he got the respect and recognition he craved. Trump said it was an "honor" to meet him, and Tillerson described the two leaders' chemistry in glowing terms. (They were having such a great chat, Tillerson said, that even when they'd run well over the allotted 30 minutes and Melania Trump came in to try to get her husband to leave, they ignored her and continued talking for another hour.) Putin can also spin the election hacking conversation to his advantage. The Russian spin is that Trump accepted Putin's assurance that he had nothing to do with the election hacking. (A Trump official has already disputed this to NBC News.)

The upshot: Trump, like many presidents before him, still believes he can reshape the U.S-Russia relationship. Today's meeting appears to have reinforced that view.

Show less

David McCabe
1 hr ago

Featured

Google, Facebook to join protest supporting net neutrality rules

Nam Y. Huh / AP

Google and Facebook are set to join a "day of action" next week opposing the proposed rollback of Obama-era net neutrality rules. Their planned activities remain unknown. The list of companies participating in the action includes Netflix and Amazon.

Why it matters: Tech companies were a major force pushing for these rules, which were approved in 2015. This is a sign that the two biggest players on the internet are willing to put their weight behind keeping them in place — at least to some extent.

Sara Fischer
3 hrs ago

Featured

FUSION relaunching as "Splinter"

Fusion Media Group

Fusion Media Group announced Friday that their digital publication FUSION will relaunch as "Splinter" (splinternews.com) on Monday, July 24. The new site will feature original reporting, including pieces from a newly launched political team, as well as content from other Gizmodo Media Group-owned sites, like Jezebel, The Root, Gizmodo and Deadspin. Fusion.net is moving to serve as the digital hub for FUSION TV, the cable channel.

Keep reading ... words

The mission: In a statement, Splinter says it will be a news and politics site that aims to reach a "justice-minded, inclusive, and incisive audience." The relaunch of the digital publication will take place Monday July 24 and will focus on "amplifying underrepresented voices, shining a light on systemic inequality, and skewering politicians when necessary."

Why it matters: The rebrand effort is aimed at creating a more distinct identity for the news site as the cable network brings more of Fusion Media Group's digital brands to TV (For example: The A.V. Club launched a show on Fusion TV earlier in March.)

Here's the editor's take, which gives the name more clarity:

Show less

Haley Britzky
3 hrs ago

Featured

U.S. bomber flights challenge China over South China Sea

Bullit Marquez / AP

Two U.S. bombers flew over the South China Sea on Thursday, challenging China's claims to the waterway and "asserting the right to treat the region as international territory," Per Reuters.

The context: China has three military bases in the South China Sea that the U.S. says are intended to "extend its strategic reach." President Trump has had an up-and-down relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping so far, and this reflects his new, more aggressive approach.

Geng Shuang, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said there was "no problem" with overflight, but that "China resolutely opposes individual countries using the banner of freedom of navigation and overflight to flaunt military force and harm China's sovereignty and security."

Erica Pandey
3 hrs ago

Featured

Online archives honor mass shooting victims

Tony Gutierrez / AP

The aftermath of national tragedies, such as the killing of five Dallas police officers one year ago today, are linked by a common act of memorialization: the creation of "spontaneous shrines." Anthropologist Sylvia Grider used this term when describing the cards, flags, wreaths and teddy bears that people bring to sites of mass shootings to the New York Times.

In the days and weeks that follow tragic events, archivists are faced with the task of preserving the mementos left at these shrines. And the best way to reach the most people is to digitize them.

Examples ... words

Virginia Tech created an online condolence archive to honor the victims of the 2007 mass shooting there.
Tuscon's January 8th Memorial Foundation was established to digitize all of the artifacts left at the site where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords along with several constituents was shot.
Boston collected the items left at the marathon bombing sites and stored them in acid-free boxes. The entire collection has also been put online.
The shrine in Dallas was cleared out in anticipation of a summer storm. The artifacts are now being shown to the families of victims in private viewings at Dallas's central library, and archivists are working toward an online archive.

Show less

Andrew Witherspoon
3 hrs ago

Featured

Trump administration goes on a nomination spree

Nominations sent to the Senate by the Trump administration have picked up, with 44% of the total nominations so far coming in June, according to data from Partnership for Public Service.

Why it matters: Although the administration is making progress, Trump's nominations have been delayed from the start and there are around 1,200 federal positions total to fill, per the 2016 Plumb Book, which tracks presidentially appointed positions.

Data: Partnership for Public Service; Note: Count as of July 2, includes executive branch positions, judicial branch positions (like the Sentencing Commission), legislative branch positions (like the Architect of the Capitol), and ex officio or positions that require their own hearings and/or votes (like the IMF Governor, etc.)

Alexi McCammond
4 hrs ago

Featured

A drone helped a South Carolina prisoner escape

Jeff Chiu / AP

A man escaped from a maximum security prison in South Carolina for the second time on Wednesday (the first time was in 2005). But this time, authorities believe drones helped him make the escape, per AP.

The prisoner used wire cutters to slash through four different fences, and authorities say a drone likely dropped the wire cutters into the prison grounds for him. South Carolina Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said the man used a cellphone (which he would've had to smuggle into the prison) to coordinate his escape, which is likely how he contacted the drone operator.

He was arrested in Texas around 3 a.m. today, and police found him with $47,000 in cash, a rifle, and a pistol.

Go deeper: There's been an increase in prisoners' drone use as of late: In the past five years, there have been over a dozen attempts to transport things like porn, drugs, and cellphones into federal prisons via drones.

Kia Kokalitcheva
5 hrs ago

Featured

Waymo drops 3 of its 4 patent claims against Uber

Alphabet's self-driving car unit, Waymo, has asked a court to dismiss three of its four patent infringement claims against Uber, according to new court documents.

Waymo is currently suing Uber, claiming that the ride-hailing company is using stolen trade secrets it acquired when it bought a company last year founded by former Waymo employees.

Note: While Waymo is permanently dropping these three claims over one of Uber's sensors, Fuji, it's not doing so for the Spider — a sensor design Uber began to work on but says it has abandoned. Waymo wants to reserve the ability to bring up this claim again should Uber decide to begin using the sensor again.

The story has been updated to clarify which sensor specific the changes apply to.

Kia Kokalitcheva
6 hrs ago

Featured

A glimpse into Uber's growing concerns over Alphabet rivalry

Heisenberg Media/Creative Commons

Alphabet chief legal officer David Drummond quietly resigned from Uber's board of directors in the summer of 2016, but concerns within Uber over a growing rivalry with Alphabet began at least at least a year and a half earlier, according to new court documents.

From Uber CEO Travis Kalanick to Drummond in a March 2015 email:

Without any dialogue we get pushed into the assumption that Google is competing in the short term and has probably been planning to do so for quite a bit longer than has been let on. I hope I'm wrong here, just need to do a meeting with Larry ASAP to get clarity and mutual understanding of how to do a proper partnership here.

Why it matters: The two companies are currently embattled in a messy lawsuit over allegations that Uber stole trade secrets from Alphabet's self-driving car unit. They initially began as partners when Alphabet's VC arm invested in Uber and Drummond took a board seat.

Keep reading ... words

Timeline:

August 2013: GV (formerly Google Ventures) leads Uber's Series C funding round, with Drummond joining the board.
June 2014: GV participates in Uber's Series D funding round.
December 2014: Kalanick forwards a column from The Information about the companies' growing rivalry to two other Uber executives.
January 2015: Kalanick asks Drummond about an Alphabet executive's recent public comments about eventually debuting an "Autonomous Vehicle ridesharing service."
February 2015: Reports surface that Alphabet is developing its own Uber competitor. Uber announces a partnership with Carnegie Mellon University to develop self-driving car technology.
March 2015: Kalanick asks Drummond if rumors are true that Alphabet is planning to soon roll out a self-driving car service, and asks again to finally meet with Alphabet CEO Larry Page, adding that Page seemed to have been avoiding him for months.
Late 2015/early 2016: Uber begins to meet with an Alphabet self-driving car employee about potentially working with his soon-to-be founded startup (eventually named Otto).
February 2016: Uber drafts a term sheet in preparation to acquire Otto.
May 2016: Navigation app Waze, own by Alphabet, begins testing a carpooling service.
August 2016: Drummond resigns from Uber's board. Uber acquires self-driving truck startup Otto.
February 2017: Alphabet's self-driving car unit, Waymo, sues Uber over alleged trade secret theft.

Show less

Shannon Vavra
7 hrs ago

Featured

UN finalizes treaty to ban nuclear weapons

Mary Altaffer / AP

The UN finalized a treaty today that would ban all nuclear weapons, destroy existing weapons, and prohibit their use forever, per NYT. Its negotiation stems in part from some nations' disappointment that the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty has not led to disarmament.

Although 130 countries' negotiators participated, none were from the world's nine nuclear-armed countries (U.S., Russia, North Korea, China, Britain, France, India, Pakistan, Israel.)

The U.S. has called it misguided and reckless, and U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley noted: "We have to be realistic…Is there anyone who thinks that North Korea would ban nuclear weapons?"

What's next: Countries will be able to start signing on to the ban September 20 at the annual General Assembly. Disarmament hopefuls want to use evidence of public acceptance to pressure the nine nuclear-armed countries to eventually sign on.

Shane Savitsky
8 hrs ago

Featured

Tillerson: Trump pushed Putin on election interference

Evan Vucci / AP

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting at the G20 summit has ended after 2 hours and 16 minutes — it was originally planned to last only 30 minutes.

The first big news out of the meeting: Russia and the U.S. are prepared to announce a ceasefire in southwestern Syria beginning on Sunday, per the AP.

The other big news out of the meeting: During an off-camera briefing with reporters, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stated that Trump opened the discussion by pressing Putin on the issue of Russian interference in last year's election — a charge Putin repeatedly denied. Tillerson called the election hacking an "intractable disagreement" between the two nations.

Russia's side: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Trump accepted Putin's denials regarding election hacking. Tillerson also said that Russia had asked for proof of their involvement in any election interference, which Trump said he'd leave to the U.S. intelligence community to provide.

Keep reading ... words

More from Tillerson's post-meeting briefing:

The focus: "How do we move forward from here?"
On the Syria ceasefire: "I think this is our first indication of the U.S. and Russia being able to work together in Syria."
Syria's future: The United States does not view the Assad regime as a long-term solution for the country.
North Korea: Tillerson said that Russia has different views on the urgency of the North Korean issue, but noted that Trump and Putin had a "pretty good" conversation regarding the country.
The length: Trump and Putin talked for so long that Melania was sent in to break up the meeting, but the two continued talking for another hour due to their "level of engagement and exchange."

More from Russia's side:

According to Russian state media arm RT, Putin said, "We've had a very long discussion with the U.S. president. Many issues accrued, including Ukraine, Syria and other problems, as well as some bilateral issues." Trump and Putin also discussed terrorism and cybersecurity.

The juice from the pre-meeting pool spray:

Trump and Putin exchanged pleasantries ahead of the sit-down. Trump: "It's an honor to be with you." Putin: "I'm delighted to meet you personally."
The body language: Putin slouched, relaxed, unsmiling. Trump leaned forward, more upbeat.
Also in the room: Tillerson, Lavrov, and two translators.
Worth asking: Is this the first time Trump and Putin have met? Trump previously said the two "have a relationship" in 2013 and that he "got to know [Putin] very well" in 2015. Check out the Washington Post's great breakdown of the potential interactions.

Show less