At cspan. Org, our homepage, and by searching the video library. Announcer washington journal adam listens be picked the perfect time to release a book about uber. It is called wild ride. He joins us now from San Francisco. It has been a particular wild ride the past 48 hours at uber. Take us through the leadership shakeup that has led to headlines on the wall street journals business and finance section. Guest you have to go back several months to february when a female engineer, a former female engineer at uber posted a blog post explaining how she had experienced routine Sexual Harassment in her position and was ignored by the Human Resources department at uber when she complained about it. A firestorm ensued about uber. The board of directors hired former attorney general eric holder to investigate these allegations and the companys culture generally. Hours, according to reports, the board has adopted all the recommendations that former attorney general holder recommended to it. These included the firing of the number two executive or the top business deputy at uber to the alanik, emil michael. That is the most recent departure. This is what has unfurled in the last 48 hours. Host you talk about Travis Kalanick. How did you restart . Uber start . Guest people like to say that uber. Kalanick founded he didnt. It was founded by a friend of his, i canadian engineer who founded a Company Called stumbleupon and did quite well with it. Camp had a realization that the iphone that came out the year before had two semi conductors and it that were unbelievable for something that you can hold in your hand. It was an accelerometer and a gps chip. These were an aircraft guidance systems. With those chips, you could design something that could measure how fast you were going and where you were. He could recreate a taxi dispatch system, something he wanted to do because taxis in San Francisco were so bad. The Company Started at uber cap, but it was not a taxi company. It held limousines and black he gothich is like how around San Francisco. Host uber cruising at a corporis crisis mode. It is still a Company Valued at about 70 billion. What has been the biggest key to her success in that quest . Guest the headline is appropriate. Thatld go further to say uber was once beloved. Service intarted its many cities around the country and many countries around the world, it was like magic to its users. The longer did you have to stand in the street and the rain and hail a taxi or call one on the telephone and wonder if it would come. Instead you could push a button on your phone and track the progress on your phone. It would eliminate anxiety and even know how long it would take to your destination. Witho not have to fumble your wallet to take out cash or wonder if the car took credit. Becoming so key to established and valued around the world so quickly . It was the ease of use of the product that made it so loved initially. Hinsky joining us from San Francisco. You can join us by phone for republicans at 202 7488001, democrats at 202 7488000 and independents at 202 7488002. We will be talking about this until 10 00 when our program ends. As viewers are calling in, what has been ubers philosophy across those years when it comes to dealing with regulation, whether it be federal regulation or state local policies . Guest ubers philosophy was to act first and ask for forgiveness later or more first and thenct figure out what the Regulatory Framework would look like . As a. As a normal company in normal times would say we have an idea that normal cars would be a glitter like a taxi system, lets meet with you. Uber would roll into town and start. They would start telling people wordofmouth or by twitter for example that their service was available. They would say the regulators that we are not a taxi service so you really should not be regulating us under your rules. Your rules are antiquated. As you can imagine, this was quite controversial in many places. In some places they got them banned. It got users writing to local officials saying we love the service. This led to controversy all over the world. I should point out that that changed over time. Once they took that as far as they could, they hired hundreds of lobbyists to try to affect the rules the oldfashioned way. Host are there lessons in the uber story for regulators . Have they changed the way they do was startups because of the uber story . Guest the shorthand would be that they have become more atponsive where they have least learned that if they are not responsive, certain kinds of startups will not just sit around and wait for them. Again with the controversies of the last few months, including the last few days, target remember this but uber and its competitors had quite a positive impact on regulators, who recognized that some of the ubers arguments were right. Taxis in the taxi systems were antiquated and were not serving the consumer well. Of taxi systems was to keep the number of cars on the road finite and to keep prices high so they could make money. Uber came in with exactly the opposite argument. Lets get as many cars on the road as possible and drive prices download as possible because that is what is best for consumers. Host we have a special line for uber riders and drivers at 202 7488003. We will look for your call on that one. As you are calling in, one question on Labor Relations in the uber world. How does that start up company and its success impact Labor Relations in this country . Guest it has had a profound effect. People talk about the gig economy and uber is certainly part of the gig economy. Singlekalanicks contribution to gary kants idea is that you do not need to buy cars or higher drivers. You should just enable drivers with cars to be your contract workers and not your employees. That is how the Company Started operating. It started operating around 2010 and thats how it is today. Millions of drivers around the world with a few exceptions are not their employees. They have been sued on this. They have been through huge classaction litigation that is currently pending in california and massachusetts. These peoplel that not be employees because of the expense involved but also that these people can have flexibility. Drivers for uber i was won by the way as i was researching the book. Host tells about the people he picked up and the right to had. Guest i was very excited to be in the uber driver and my excitement was misplaced. People in the backseat a norton me. Being stuck in traffic and the pay was not very good. What i was able to grasp and what people do like about the experience is the flexibility,. You drive when you want to and not when an employer tells you to. Host were talking about the future of uber with the author of wild ride. go ahead. You got to turn down your tv and talk through your phone. Alecia. Im when im whats what im saying is that my son works for uber. Sometimes theres too much traffic jam and its rainy and yes it do to drives. Uber is just paying for one meal of two. News thatof the they are just laying off several thousand people. Other people have been having problems that they are being stolen of their money by passengers. My son is having a problem. At this time he is not able to even pay his friends because of the money. His car broke down twice and he has to fix his car in order for him to continue working. For thenot paying people who are having such hard times. Host i appreciate you sharing your story. The conflict between uber in the drivers when it comes to the right level of pay. Guest this call is a perfect example of the promise and the peril of uber in the example of the gripes against the company by its drivers. If this womans son was working for a taxi company, by the way Taxi Companies i know of dont deliver food, but uber does through uber eats, but he would be driving one of their cars and not his car. They would be responsible for maintenance not him. They would be responsible for paying him according to their system for pain. Uber isnt. Uber pays for ride or per delivery. These are the pros and cons. I would guess that this young man continues to drive for uber because he sees it as an opportunity. Thats the upside. The downside is that theres many examples of complaints like this. Host maverick on twitter wants to know if there are drivers of questioning backgrounds that are a problem for over. Guest i had a criminal background check done on me before i could drive. It takes about three days. They are going to fly people with criminal records who are being truthful about who they say they are. You need to because you need to show your drivers license and your auto insurance. Credit worthiness is a stick ier problem. Numerous help people uber has helped people buy or lease cars. Theyve gotten involved in highpriced loans that have been problems in other parts of the economy. L segment ofmal their driver population. It is a problem as uber needs to find more drivers all the time. Host lets talk to the driver population. On the line for uber drivers from pennsylvania, good morning. Caller yes. Host go ahead. You are on. Caller i have been a new bridge driver for eight months in harrisburg, pennsylvania. You can turn it on whenever you want to. Its like free money. I love it. I dont have no problem with my customers. Their friendly they are friendly and everything. I dont know what youre talking about. Its your opinion, but i love it. Host give you a chance to respond. Guest this is consistent with my experience as well. This is what ive tried to explain. There are many gripes from drivers and others about the uber experience and then theres many people who say they give me an opportunity to make cash when i want to. I get to be home with my family when i want to. I like driving around and talking to people. , wehis company were all bad would not be sitting here talking about it right now and i would not have written a book about it. Theres a time of good about this company. It is change the way people do all sorts of things come including get around and in her case work. Host a tweet from james on twitter. Uber, the you kill wrath of millennials toward the government would be like something never seen before. Guest thats a fascinating comment. Exclusively almost on young, single, urban people who loved the uber experience and still do. This person did not tweet where they are tweeting from. In San Francisco and new york, many millennials cannot take the uber because they have a negative impression of the company. They want to take lyft. Maybe this will be a theme of our entire session that there is a massively diverse viewpoints on uber. Host george is a driver in new jersey. Caller my question to adam. I am in uber driver in new york. I have a taxi limousine license. I work in new york city and it cost me between 6,000 and 7,000 in insurance a year. My car i have to pay a fixed percent of my money. Travis enriches himself on the stock market and i cannot make a living for my family. It takes a percent of my total uber income. Im supporting five people. How can mr. Adam promote uber and not promote work for drivers trying to make a living in new york and San Francisco where the expenses higher . Host give you a chance to respond. Guest first of all, im not promoted over. Torote a book about uber explain it and have a dialogue around questions like this one. Just to be clear and this is an important distinction for people listening. Nick has not gotten rich on the stock market because it is a private company. Uber is your agent in this case. They are acting as your agent and helping you find rides. They are taking a cut of it just like my agent takes a cut of my work. You dont have to use it. You have other opportunities. This driver may say that because uber exists that it is cutting into those opportunities. That is true. That is going to take some time to shake out. It will shake out. The market will reach equilibrium. In the meantime, there is no doubt that uber has caused tremendous disruption for people like you. Host wild ride is not your only book. Youre also the author of inside apple. You also serve as editor of the fortune conference. Youre with us until the house comes in at 10 00 this morning. Cheryl is in boulder, colorado. Good morning. Caller i to questions about insurance. Are the drivers required to carry a commercial level of insurance . If so, how extensive is that . That, whatt require happens if the driver is in an accident and you get badly hurt and all they have got is their personal Car Insurance and they say we are not going to pay anything because we do not know you were using your car for business purposes . Guest thank you. On insuranceeep issues because its not something that i researched extensively. I dont want to miss speak. My general understanding is that uber makes it clear to its drivers that are driving above a certain threshold that they are in fact required to have insurance. I believe the compliant is generally high. Its probably not perfect, but i can tell you that when i became a new bridge driver, i was required to show proof of insurance. I was not required to show proof of commercial insurance. I was told i needed to get it. I was insured. I cannot tell you what wouldve happened if i got in an accident. Its a great question. Uber knows this better than i did. I cannot tell you how good of a job they are doing. Host another headline from the front page of the los angeles times. What is your read on the reports coming out about uber and how its going to impact the stock prices of uber and the future of the company . Guest its really interesting that you mention the company was worth nearly 70 billion. Thats true about their private valuation. Investors agreed that the company was worth nearly 70 billion. That does not mean it is worth nearly 70 billion today. If it was publicly traded, we would know what it was worth once the market opens. In aboutirst time seven years of many controversies, i think it is safe to assume that the investors in it were are in fact concerned and there are many investors now from tiny venturecapital firms to large Mutual Fund Companies to a Sovereign Wealth Fund owned by the government of saudi arabia. I think investors are quite concerned, which is why you are seeing these very public and highlevel actions taken place right now in its frontpage news. Host who benefits the most if uber takes a big hit . Guest in the united states, the leading competitor is lyft. It has a different background from uber, but shares the background from being in San Francisco, having venture capitalists investors. In many cases, having the same exact drivers. You will see people all over town with both logos or decals. They stand in the near term to benefit the most. Host there people who are drivers for both. How do they choose which one to be driving for on any particular right . Guest if you are driver for uber or lyft, you have an app in your phone. The driver app is what you turn on to get rides. Both Companies Use the system of incentives. They will send Text Messages and emails, same drive a certain number of times in the next amount of hours and you will get a certain bonus. The drivers respond to these incentives as they decide who they are going to drive for. You also can open the app and get a look at where the demand is. Yout turn on kyft might turn on lyft or uber and decide which one youre going to do. Host beverly is in houston, texas, line for independents. Caller im not a redblue person. I see things in the class area. I live in houston, fourth largest american city. Kind of haphazard public transportation, not much. It so that for so long that they would not come to my neighborhood. I am on paratransit and theyre supposed to get a 10 voucher to take you down the street to the store. The caps would line up. They wont pick up poor people. They wont go to neighborhoods. Ubertakes us and the health care transportation desert and make it so people can live. I dont know all about their problems. I know my son takes it to work. We cannot get a cab. We dont worry about getting robbed. I just want to leave you with that thought and thank you for your answer. Host thank you for sharing your story. Guest thank you indeed. This was when cooper started uber started and first became popular, this was one of its major arguments. Newyone in the country anecdotes of places where taxi would not go for one reason or the other. Sometimes for the reasons that you stay there or other times they do not like certain neighborhoods whether they were dangerous or did not like going because it was racist. Uber was supposed to be blind to all this. I should point out that there have been allegations against uber exactly the same as the allegations you talked about with taxis. Theres no question that it was a whole new opportunity for transportation for neighborhoods that did not have any or did not have much. Adia is out near San Francisco on the line for republicans. Caller good morning. I was wondering if investigating in your book you found a lot of taxi drivers were leaving the Taxi Companies to go to work for uber. Do you think eventually taxis will go out of business and being replaced right uber and other Companies Like it . Guest i did speak to tax it who acquit driving for taxis and driving for uber. Researching myf book, i went in the love San Francisco international airport. I decided to take a taxi and there was a line of yellow taxis in front of the arrival gate waiting for pickups with no business at all. If i had to guess, Taxi Companies wont go out of business because there will still be a certain customer who wants to raise their hand in the street to hail a taxi. There are people who will want thatt in a regulated car is regulated with the government because that gives them more competence as opposed competence as opposed to getting the car was someone like me are you. That market has declined considerably. Because of its and efficiency compared to others, it will probably continue to decline. I doubt it will go away with the same things like radio has not gone away. Host we shared some of the headlines from todays papers. What are you expecting from this uber controversy . Reporte more to this that former attorney general eric holder had worked on for the company . Guest today we expect that uber will make public a version of that report. They are going to present it to employees today. Every time they present something to employees, it leaks out. Im sure the report will be quite damning. The interview thousands of employees and said to them essentially what is your experience and is there anything you would like to complain about . No company would like to go through that process, but they will summarize their findings. The big question on everyones mind has been ha floated the past few days that Travis Kalanick is taking a three month leave of absence. Host we will have to leave it there. Thank you. We now take our viewers live to the house floor. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] washingto , june 13, 2017. I hereby appoint the honorable jamesomer to acas spear pro tempor this day. Signpaul d anspeake of the house of representatives. The spero mpore pursuant to the ordeof the usof januar017,he cir will now rnize