Uber

Uber brings back Siri and Maps integration [u]

Uber for iPhone was updated on App Store yesterday and it brings back seamless integration with Apple Maps and the ability to hail a ride using the Siri smart assistant, the two features that were removed without explanation from the previous update issued in January.

Get Me Home lets you summon a Lyft or Uber right from Spotlight

Sometimes you need to get home, and whether you’re too intoxicated because you had one too many drink or you’re just too tired to drive, both Lyft and Uber offer convenient transportation services to get you from point A to point B safely.

Both services have apps to make summoning transportation easy for you, but if you want to make things even easier, then you might like a new jailbreak tweak called Get Me Home by iOS developer Tom Effects.

Investors force Uber CEO to step down

Travis Kalanick, 40, who is the co-founder and chief executive of Uber, has resigned from his post yesterday at the request of five major Silicon Valley investors, following his indefinite leave of absence. He will stay on the company's board of directors and continue to hold a majority of Uber's voting-eligible stock shares.

An Uber spokesperson declined to comment.

Mike Isaac, reporting for The New York Times, said that Kalanick is stepping down from his CEO role after “a shareholder revolt” made it untenable for him to stay on at the company.

“I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight,” Kalanick said in a statement.

Yesterday, five of Uber’s major investors demanded that Kalanick resign immediately, including the venture capital firm Benchmark, one of the ride-hailing firm’s biggest shareholders which has one of its partners, Bill Gurley, on Uber’s board.

Here's a Bloomberg video showing Kalanick getting into an argument with an Uber driver.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=25&v=gTEDYCkNqns

The five major investors demanded that Kalanick step down in a letter delivered to him while he was in Chicago. Titled “Moving Uber Forward,” it highlights the need for a change in leadership.

The board of directors said in a statement that Kalanick had “always put Uber first”.

His resignation as CEO will give Uber “room to fully embrace this new chapter in its history.”

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Taking a startup chief executive to task so publicly is relatively unusual in Silicon Valley, where investors often praise entrepreneurs and their aggressiveness, especially if their companies are growing fast. It is only when those startups are in a precarious position or are declining that shareholders move to protect their investment.

Having laid off nearly two-dozen employees after an investigation into Uber’s corporate culture, the company is now searching for new executives, including a chief operating officer.

Uber recently appointed Bozoma Saint John as its Chief Brand Officer.

Until June 2017, she was a marketing executive at Apple Music after joining the Cupertino giant in its acquisition of Beats Music for $3 billion in May of 2014.

Apple along with other tech giants working on a letter opposing Trump’s travel ban

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Uber and other technology giants, along with an unidentified consumer goods and manufacturing company, are working on a letter to formally oppose U.S. President Donald Trump's travel ban which has barred Syrian refuges and travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the country.

Having obtained a draft of the letter, Recode reports that parties from other industries will also sign on in their support of immigration into U.S.

NYT: Lyft unsuccessfully attempts to sell itself to Apple, Google, Uber and others

Despite not being in danger of closing down thanks to its cash cushion of $1.4 billion, the popular ride-sharing service Lyft has in recent months attempted to sell itself to Apple and a few other Silicon Valley giants like Google, Amazon and Uber, The New York Times reported yesterday. None of the mentioned companies commented on the story.

The nation's second-largest ride-hailing firm also attempted a sale to China's leading ride-sharing service, Didi Chuxing, into which Apple invested $1 billion, and to General Motors, one of its largest investors that refused to make a written offer to buy it.