It’s an (almost) all-Uber round up today, with everything from new safety features, to a spy scandal, to tiny orders for Walmart. See what else Uber and other rideshare and delivery services are up to in this week’s roundup with senior RSG contributor Paula Gibbins.
Uber Survived the Spying Scandal. Some Careers Didn’t. (NY Times)
Summary: The men who gathered intelligence for Uber were supposed to be ghosts. For years, they were un-Googleable sentries, quietly informing executives about the actions of competitors, opponents and disgruntled employees. But the secrecy of the tightknit team ended abruptly in 2017 when one of its members turned on the others, accusing them of stealing trade secrets, wiretapping and destroying evidence.
They flouted the law while carrying out Uber’s dirtiest missions, their former co-worker, Richard Jacobs, claimed in an April 2017 email sent to top Uber executives. His lawyer followed up with a letter that said the team went so far as to hack foreign governments and wiretap Uber’s own employees.
But Mr. Jacobs’s most damning allegations of illegal activity were not true. In June, nearly four years after his claims drew wide attention, he retracted them. In a letter to his former co-workers that he wrote as part of a legal settlement, Mr. Jacobs explained that he had never intended to suggest that they broke the law.
“I am sorry,” he wrote. “I regret not having clarified the statements at an earlier time and regret any distress or injury my statements may have caused.” Gary Bostwick, a lawyer for Mr. Jacobs, declined to comment….
My Take: If you have a subscription to NY Times, I highly recommend reading the article. It’s enlightening if only to show how much damage people can do to each other. Obviously, Uber survived and is currently thriving, despite the bad publicity and allegations surrounding this scandal. The company basically left unscathed, but the people were and still are damaged (whether they were innocent or guilty).
You also get a small glimpse into Uber behind the scenes. The side of the company you rarely ever hear about or think about. We only ever really focus on the drivers or the passengers instead of the company itself and those who run it.
Don’t get me wrong, Uber still has a shady reputation overall. I don’t think anyone who uses or knows about Uber would be like “Yeah, Uber is on the up-and-up. They only do things by the book.”
But, if you have the time, give the full article a read. It’s a side of Uber I haven’t really given much thought to in the past.
Walmart Delivers Your Stuff—One Small Item at a Time (Wall Street Journal)
Summary: April Chiodini opened her front door on a recent afternoon to find a fuzzy chicken-leg dog toy stuffed inside a Walmart bag on the porch. She took it inside and asked her daughter if she knew where it came from.
The 96-cent drumstick was a last-minute addition to an online order her daughter had placed just two hours before. She added it to her cart to get over the free-shipping threshold, and somehow it beat the rest of the order to their home in Arnold, Mo., by days.
When the same thing happened a few weeks later, this time involving a lonely towel set, Ms. Chiodini investigated. Her doorbell camera feed showed a driver pull up in a nondescript car and deposit the towels on her porch.
“I couldn’t believe that they would actually pay someone to bring that item to my house instead of throwing it in the shipping box,” said Ms. Chiodini, a 42-year-old small-business owner. “I was completely baffled.”
Walmart Inc. is trying to master speedy delivery. Some of its efforts are leaving shoppers confused….
While Uber Eats typically groups several nearby deliveries together, each walmart.com delivery is usually tiny, Ms. Slover said, often a single item. She recently drove 15 miles to bring someone a bag of ponytail holders.
“I don’t know how they can afford to do that,” she said. “I deliver a small bag of peanuts, and then they pay me $10 to do that—it’s ridiculous.”…
My Take: Obviously there are kinks in the system right now. It’s actually kind of funny that you can order a huge order online and a couple hours later you get one thing from it. Frustrating for customers and drivers, but still pretty funny overall.
The last part I shared above is key. “I don’t know how they can afford to do that.” They can’t. Let’s be honest. This kind of model will not last long because it will not be profitable in the long run. Walmart, Uber, whomever, cannot afford to pay a driver $10 per trip to deliver a $1 item. Especially if they are not charging the customers extra.
They are experimenting right now. The markets where this is available are the guinea pigs at the moment. People are going to be confused and things aren’t going to make sense. But someone is recording what is happening and working through the troubles that arise.
Not sure this will be a long-term solution or if this will fizzle out after a few months. Keep an eye out to see what’s happening around you and let us know your thoughts.
Your Favorite Restaurant Might Be Taking Delivery Off the Menu (Wall Street Journal)
Summary: Consumers might no longer be able to count on delivery of pancakes, ice cream or whatever else they crave, whenever they crave it.
Some restaurants, struggling with labor shortages and the return of customers to on-site dining, are choosing to scale back at times on often less-profitable delivery and to-go orders, companies and restaurateurs said.
The move comes as restaurants try to juggle orders from dining-rooms, phone calls, websites and apps—sometimes all hitting stretched servers and kitchens during peak hours.
Some restaurant operators said they are shutting off delivery and online sales for periods to focus on dine-in customers, who generally provide the most profitable sales. Executives of Darden Restaurants Inc., DRI -0.72% Cheesecake Factory Inc., CAKE -1.61% Dine Brands Global Inc. and First Watch Restaurant Group Inc. FWRG -1.97% are among those throttling delivery and online orders when their kitchens become too busy serving dine-in customers, or when locations are struggling with staffing….
My Take: A shift is happening, it seems. As the article mentions, because of Covid, a lot of restaurants immediately shifted into “must provide deliveries to survive” mode. Now that the panic is generally over and restaurants are able to offer indoor dining once more, they are shifting their mindset away from “I must provide delivery” to “what makes sense for our bottom line”.
When they were just able to offer delivery and pickup, it was likely a manageable system. Now they have to juggle online orders, phone calls, pickups/deliveries, plus their regular in-store customers. What a hassle.
While I love the idea of being able to order food from basically any restaurant I want, I can understand where restaurant owners are coming from by removing delivery as an option. If I really want their food, I’ll just have to go get it myself, send someone else for me, or head to the restaurant to dine in. Simple as that.
Check out what Harry had to say about it on LinkedIn.
7-Eleven and Nuro begin autonomous vehicle deliveries in California (Engadget)
Summary: 7-Eleven has teamed up with Nuro for autonomous vehicle deliveries in Mountain View, California. Residents can place orders through the 7Now app and an AV might bring the items to their location.
Autonomous deliveries won’t cost customers anything extra. They’re available from 8AM until 9PM PT every day, and the companies say orders should arrive in around 30 minutes. When the AV arrives, customers collect their items from the rear. There are some limitations. You won’t be able to order age-restricted items — such as alcohol, tobacco or lottery tickets — for autonomous delivery….
My Take: Baby steps. That’s what everyone is taking with autonomous vehicles these days, just baby steps. That’s all they can do. You have to perfect what you’re doing in one market/location/setup before you can even think about expanding to full-scale operations.
Uber intros several safety features, including one that records audio during a ride (Tech Crunch)
Summary: Uber is adding several new safety features to its app, including an audio reminder to riders to wear their seat belts, allowing riders or drivers to record audio during rides, and detection of unexpected route changes or stops before the final destination. The updates are designed to help both riders and drivers feel safer during trips, Uber said.
“Many people admit to not always buckling up in the back seat, especially on shorter trips, and that can create an uncomfortable situation for drivers,” Kristin Smith, road safety public policy manager at Uber, told TechCrunch. “We think introducing an audio reminder can help reinforce the message that people need to buckle up in every seat, every time. This feature builds on a number of seat belt awareness campaigns we’ve launched over the past several years. We’ve partnered with GHSA on our ‘Make It Click’ Campaign and have worked to educate riders and drivers on the importance of wearing a seat belt.”
The seat belt feature will begin to roll out to some users later this month and expand nationally early next year, according to an Uber spokesperson, who also said the impetus for the audio alert came in part from feedback from drivers who bear the brunt of responsibility for paying off tickets. He also said the audio alerts are the result of recent National Highway Traffic Safety Administration stats, which found that while Americans drove less in 2020, the projected fatalities is the highest since 2007. At the start of the trip, the driver’s phone will have an audio alert reminding riders to buckle up, while a push notification is sent to the rider’s phone.
The audio recording feature, which has been live in Latin America for around two years, will begin rolling out in the U.S. next week as a pilot in Kansas City, Louisville and Raleigh-Durham. Drivers and riders can choose to record audio by tapping the shield icon on the map screen and selecting “Record Audio.” If a driver has opted into the feature, riders will get a notification within the app before the trip begins….
My Take: RED FLAG. That was my gut reaction to this safety feature announcement. Specifically the recording of audio since it’s handled by Uber and not managed by the driver themselves.
To see if I was the only one with this reaction, we asked you about it on our Facebook page. Here are a few reactions:
Nick N. said, “I would rather they fix the issues first before worrying about additional features that really aren’t necessary. We all have an audio recorder on our phones if we really needed to.”
“Hell yeah” was David H.’s reaction.
And Christina I. said, “Now they can keep recording, but this time with our consent ha ha.”
So, drivers’ reactions are different across the board. I guess my reaction was more or less because I would want assurances of some kind that the app would absolutely only record while on a ride. I don’t want Uber (or anyone for that matter) listening to me when I’m talking/singing to myself while I’m driving.
Or worse, listening in when I’m not actively using the app. But, I suppose the world is becoming more or less a giant speaker anyway. Devices are always listening to us to know if they need to react in some way to what we’re saying (think Google Home, Alexa, etc.).
What do you think of these safety features? Are you ok with Uber wanting to record the audio in your vehicle? What safety features would you like to see implemented?
-Paula @ RSG
