Hell of a ride: even a PR powerhouse couldn’t get Uber on track | Technology | The Guardian

When Rachel Whetstone left Google two years ago to replace David Plouffe, a former Barack Obama official, as policy and communications vice-president at Uber, it seemed like a promising Silicon Valley role.The taxi-hailing app had a reputation for aggressive and even underhand tactics, and a CEO, in Travis Kalanick, with a reputation as a gaffe-prone “tech bro”, but it was one of the fastest growing startups in the world, achieving a $50bn valuation (now almost $70bn) within just six years.However Whetstone departed the company this week amid a stunning array of scandals and controversies, including allegations of sexual harassment, a video of Kalanick berating an Uber driver, a legal battle with Google over the alleged theft of driverless car technology, the revelation that Uber used secret “Greyball” software to deceive city regulators, and allegations that the company had another program called “Hell” designed to spy on its arch-rival Lyft.For Whetstone it’s been a hell of a ride. Public relations veteran Ed Zitron described Whetstone’s job as the equivalent of having “two fists permanently punching you in the head”.And that’s only in the last four months.

Källa: Hell of a ride: even a PR powerhouse couldn’t get Uber on track | Technology | The Guardian