Uber is having a tough time. The #deleteuber” campaign has already caused hundreds of thousands of people to delete their Uber accounts, and now head of communications for Uber Rachel Whetstone has called it quits. What will this mean for the technology company?
1. Why are Uber execs quitting?
Only last month, Uber’s president quit his job after only six months at Uber. Uber’s head of engineering Amit Singhal also left after failing to disclose sexual harassment allegations from his previous employer, Google. Now Whetstone is the latest executive to leave.
An internal email from Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick, reportedly said: “I wanted to let you know that Rachel Whetstone, who heads up policy and communications globally, has decided to leave Uber. Since joining in 2015, Rachel has blown us all away with her ability to get stuff done. She is a force of nature, an extraordinary talent and an amazing player-coach who has built a first-class organization.”
2. What is Rachel Whetstone’s story?
British Whetstone was raised in East Sussex before heading off to Bristol University to study history. After graduating with a 2:1, Whetstone worked advising the then Home Secretary Michael Howard. She then moved out to California to join Google. Whetstone worked at Google for ten years. She was working as Google’s head of communications and public policy when she left to join Uber back in 2015.
After two years as head of communications and public policy at Uber Rachel Whetstone has now called it quits.
3. Is Uber innovation on pause?
The hotly anticipated Uber self-driving car programme is under serious threat. Why? A lawsuit is claiming that the technology was stolen from Google. On top of that, the firm’s upfront pricing scheme, which lets users and drivers know fares upfront, is also under threat. A lawsuit makes allegations that Uber designed the app deliberately to shortchange drivers and make more profit from app customers. Drivers, as a result, are taking longer routes to come up with different values for journeys. Will this all come to a head?
Should Uber and Google just join forces? And resources?
Read more:
https://live-newstatesman-b2b.pantheonsite.io/glimpse-driverless-future-gives-car-manufacturers-2020-vision/