Under pressure Uber CEO Travis Kalanick resigns

Uber founder, Travis Kalanick has resigned as chief executive officer of the company.

The news is on the back of the ride-sharing firm being hit with a series of scandals, controversies, and accusations of illegal activities in recent months.

In Malaysia, Uber is currently doing damage control to manage the spiralling problems of rising allegations of sexual misconduct and other driver-related troubles.

Recent sexual assault and robbery cases involving their drivers have led Uber to launch an all-out safety campaign to manage the situation better.

In an attempt to reassure the public, Uber held a press conference at its Partner Support Center earlier this week to ensure that the company is doing its best in arresting the allegations of poor security and safety of its riders.

In recent cases here in Malaysia, a Vietnamese woman was allegedly molested by an Uber driver in Penang.

In another case, a women in Puchong suffered a miscarriage after she was allegedly left stranded by her Uber driver.

It doesn’t look good for Uber globally either. There is a major lawsuit claiming intellectual property theft from Google’s Waymo self-driving cars.

Uber is also under widespread investigations of sexual harassment of its employees in many of its global offices.

Before this, a video showing Kalanick in a direct confrontation with a driver, was also made public. Sice then, Kalanick had publicly apologised for his unruly behaviour.

According to a New York Times article, a group of major Uber investors demanded Kalanick’s resignation earlier this week following his failure to manage a series of global mismanagement. The company has yet to announce his successor.

Malaysia’s pension fund, KWAP has a direct stake in Uber after a RM124 mil investment made by the pension fund after taking part in Uber’s Series-G funding round back in September 2016.

Watch Astro AWANI interview the KWAP CEO on their multi-million ringgit investment in Uber and more on Market Talk. Watch Market Talk on Astro AWANI’s YouTube Channel, or on AWANI mobile app.