Travis Kalanick, the big boss of all of Uber, had a bit of a row with one of his (millions of) drivers. And he lost it totally. And it was filmed. And went viral. Obviously. And he was ashamed and we were judgmental and everything’s gone to shit.

But when you need to get to Leicester Square this afternoon, who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters? Or Uber?

So everyone’s talking about Uber. Again. So I feel I should. Just because…

Well, because of recent events I now know a lot more about Uber than I did before. But now everyone’s talking about ‘the wheels coming off’ and ‘the end of Uber’ and all such shit. Because our moral indignation won’t get my dad home at 10 o’clock last night for 19 quid when I’m over the limit and he’s tired. But Uber did. And questioning bizarre business models won’t get you anywhere as quickly as Mohammed in his Prius. Bless him.

Uber is a ‘hi-tech start-up’. Which is a modern day euphemism for ‘cost a fortune to run, loses money by the truckload and yet has a ridiculously high perceived value’. In current money, about $70billion valuation. For a company that’s lost 4 billion in the last 7 years.

Not of my money. Of investors money. Start-up investors know the score; stuff in the millions to develop, then keep on stuffing, in this case in billions, to keep it going during the expansion. Not because expansion will necessarily produce more profits, but precisely because it produces more losses. So why? Where’s the payoff??

Uber has an absolutely amazing infrastructure, already apped up in everybody’s phones, of linking customers to rides. When the world goes driverless, which is definitely where its headed, Uber will be at the top of the tree. Tesla may make the cars, or Nissan, or anyone, it don’t matter. What matters is hooking up those cars with the people who need to ride in them.

There’s a big hoo-haa every time an Uber driver rapes/molests/gets drunk or any alleged indiscretion. Or even the ‘team’ at Palo Alto being sexist. But they’re not specifically ‘Uber’ problems, they’re people problems. Any large group of people will have 1 rapist, 2 molesters, 3 drunks and 7 sexists. Statistically proven. It happens with Hackney Carriage drivers, with chartered accountants, much higher in football clubs. Much, much higher. Its not a ‘problem with Uber’, its a problem with ‘rapists’.

So I may knock Uber for indiscretions, I may condemn their CEO for being a persistent tosser (on Trump’s economic advisory panel???), I may tut when they get bad press. But then I feel hypocritical because the next time I need to get somewhere in a hurry and cheaply, its their app I call up. I could ‘talk with my feet’, but I’d rather ride in a Prius.

Appy Saturday

A xxxx