uber at crossroads, facing lawsuit, mounting criticism and growing rivals - laser range meter

Uber is born.
Ride for survival-
Taxi companies have to fight the taxi union and the whole government.
This fight culture has made it a global brand worth up to $69 billion.
But the company was hitting its face most of 2017.
First, a former employee accused Uber of widespread sexual harassment and abuse at its headquarters.
According to the New York Times, about 200,000 people have removed the Uber app from their phones, and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has agreed to join President Donald Trump's economic advisory committee, and was accused of trying to profit from a New York taxi strike protesting Trump's travel ban.
Recently, Kalanick was photographed yelling at an Uber driver who said he lost money while working at the company.
Nundu Janakiram, head of Uber driver experience, said kalanicki apologized for his outbreak.
"Travis said in his notes that his behavior towards drivers is completely unacceptable," Janakiram said at Uber headquarters in San Francisco . ".
As for the so-called sexual harassment culture, he said Kalanickwill will ensure that everyone in the company is respected.
"An internal investigation is underway in the hope of causing some changes within the company.
"It is revealed that Uber has designed a complex tool called Greyball to identify regulators and direct them to a fake version of the app that shows that it will never
The company announced on Wednesday that it would terminate the project.
Even Uber's most promising "good news" has become unpleasant.
In many tests by Ubertouted self-
When driving, the car ran a red light six times.
Despite repeated requests from the California motor vehicle department, Uber declined to apply for a $150 license to be tested in the state.
Matt Sweeney, Uber's product leader, said the company will now follow suit.
"We maintain ongoing communication with DMV and other regulators to ensure that we are doing what needs to be done," Sweny said . ".
Sweni points to a series of sensors installed on a large truck parked on the San Francisco pier.
This is a show for Uber
Truck driving company called Otto
"Together, we use these different sensor models to build as much as we can about the world around the truck," he said . ".
"At the top, at the center, it's a lidar, a scanning laser range finder.
"But this laser is at the heart of a product that can be very expensive, and one analyst said it could even shut down the company.
Google claims Otto's co-operation
The founder downloaded 14,000 confidential documents before leaving Google itself.
Truck driving company
Google claims he founded Otto based on their technology.
Uber bought Otto and now Google is suing.
Uber denied the allegations, but Silicon Valley analyst Brian Solis of the high-tech group believes the lawsuit could pose a threat to the company's survival.
Solis said: "This is a very big challenge for Uber, which may eventually kill the company, or lead to payment types of spending, which will be for Uber over time
With more criticism, kalanicking announced on March 7 that he would hire someone to help him run the company.
But Fabian geyr, who is responsible for Finien, a brand agent for tech start-ups, believes that loyalty to many customers and drivers may have been lost.
"They forget the one thing that's most important to any brand, that's people," says Geyrhalter . ".
Industry watchers Harry Campbell said Uber is now facing more competition, not only from rival Lyft, but also from small companies that sell itself as "Uber" and write blog site names.
"Over the past year, we have seen a huge rise in more niche services.
So whether it's a "children's Uber" or an "elderly Uber" or an "airport ride Uber", there are basically a lot of companies that are raising money and trying to focus on these niche markets.
Analysts say that with this series of public relations disasters, other companies may profit from Uber's misfortune.
"Uber's brand is at a crossroads," Solis said . ".
"I think it is inevitable that this will have a negative impact on its income.
"Geyrhalter agrees with this.
"There's not so much brand loyalty at the moment because it's such a young company," he said . ".
"It's hard to make this transition at this point and will still be considered a really cool app that people want to use.
"He said other companies soon sold themselves as a more ethical alternative to Uber.
"Now, in addition to being a ridesharing company, there are a few ridesharing companies that come out to really care about other things," he said . ".
He gave hyper a lesson.
The aggressive Silicon Valley is like this: if you ignore something that makes you cool in the first place, you may not be cool for a long time.
"It really disturbs a company that used to disrupt the entire category.