
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, A trove of internal Uber documents has leaked. The Uber Files consists of over 124,000 documents from between 2013 and 2017 and its not pretty. They show how Uber tried to gain support by discreetly courting government bureaucrats and world leaders. The documents also reveal how the company prepared a kill switch to shut off its computer systems to prevent authorities from successfully investigating its business.
Uber’s expansion met fierce resistance from the global taxi industry, which feared Uber’s convenience and cheap fares, subsidized by investors, would jeopardize livelihoods. Transportation rules at the time usually attempted to codify two separate types of car service, taxis (which you could hail from the street) and livery (which you could arrange beforehand over the phone). Cities then tried to carefully limit the supply of drivers through the issuance of special licenses like medallions. This decades-old framework led to infamously poor service in many places.
Uber devised a plan to expand quickly, show drivers, riders and politicians that digital ride-hailing was superior and then bend local statutes in a time frame that could benefit a fast-growing startup.
The documents also suggest that Uber:
- Offered financial stakes to influential figures around the world
- Paid academics to produce research supporting its economic claims
- Knowingly ignored and evaded local laws
- Secretly met with and schmoozed world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, then-French Economy Minister