“It’s disappointing to see Mayor Nenshi stoop to name calling,” ride-sharing company Uber said Saturday after Calgary’s mayor was caught on camera calling the company’s CEO a “dick.”
Nenshi had the conversation with a Lyft rideshare driver in Boston on April 20, 2016. He was there to give a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in nearby Cambridge.
The driver had been broadcasting the trip using the livestreaming app Periscope. Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he was unaware his conversation was being broadcast online. “Who knew I’d have my very own episode of Taxicab Confessions?” he said in a statement Saturday.
In the video, Nenshi tells the driver, who also works for Uber, that he wanted to know more about his experience working for ride-sharing companies, but first discusses his own experience with the company at length.
“Uber – there’s no polite way of saying this – have a brilliant business model… and are dicks,” Nenshi says in the video. “They are honestly the worst people in the world to deal with… I have never dealt with people like this.”
Nenshi goes on to describe meeting Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.
“I was at a conference and I met Travis, the CEO, and I was like, ‘oh right, it’s because you’re a dick.’”
Nenshi is also heard suggesting the city found people who have been convicted of crimes to test Uber’s driver background checks.
“We’re no fools, so we sent people to sign up to be Uber drivers to see if they could get through the background check,” he said. “How we found registered sex offenders I don’t want to know, and people with convictions for violent crimes – I don’t want to know why we know those people. I just don’t want to know, nobody will even tell me and I don’t want to know, but they all made it through Uber’s theoretical background screening.”
The San Francisco-based ride-sharing firm has struggled to enter the Calgary market, calling the city’s livery bylaws “too onerous.”
READ MORE: ‘Uber can’t operate in Calgary’ under approved bylaw, says spokesperson
Uber responded to Nenshi’s comments with a statement Saturday.
“We hope this can give way to a more constructive conversation that benefits the riders and drivers of Calgary,” Uber spokesperson Jean-Christophe de Le Rue said.
De Le Rue also referenced a tweet Nenshi posted following his meeting with Kalanick last January, suggesting the mayor was contradicting himself.
With regard to Nenshi’s comments about background checks, de Le Rue said, “Uber searches RCMP and local police databases. It is a national standard check used by many national and provincial organizations. The search includes the same criminal database (FIP) that police must search to permit a firearms possession and acquisition licence.”
READ MORE: Uber settles lawsuit over driver background checks for $10M
“I think what is more serious are the allegations that the city council of Calgary was recruiting criminals and sex offenders to test Uber’s screening,” political analyst Duanne Bratt said in response to Nenshi’s statements. “I don’t think it’s true. I hope that it’s not true. If it is true, we are dealing with a much bigger scandal.”
At one point in the almost half-hour trip, the client sitting in the back seat behind Nenshi, is seen noticing and asking about the dash camera. The driver tells him he uses it to participate in group video chats.
“Oh that’s funny, ” Nenshi says, upon apparently realizing the conversation was being shared.
Nenshi then goes on to discuss U.S. presidential candidates, calling Calgary-born Ted Cruz, “a scary man” and saying he has a bias towards Hillary Clinton, but didn’t feel like she was representing herself well in her campaign.
He also says Obama has been “a remarkable president” and a “decent, ethical, smart guy.”
Nenshi is heard asking about the video again at the end of the trip.
“So what’s going on here?”
The driver is then heard replying, “these are my friends from all over the world, watching.”
City administration said it would not comment on the video and directed media requests to the mayor’s office.
In a statement, Nenshi apologized for his “colourful” language and comments about Kalanick:
“It looks like there is a lot of interest in a video that was filmed of me in a cab in Boston. Who knew I’d have my very own episode of Taxicab Confessions? I should have stuck with Carpool Karaoke.
In any case, when I travel to places where ridesharing is legal, I often use services like Uber and Lyft, specifically so I can talk with the drivers and better understand their job and their understanding of the regulatory environment under which they operate. For example, I always ask about their insurance, the number of hours they drive, and how much they have to pay as a driver versus what the ridesharing company pays. This has helped me a lot with my on-the-ground knowledge as the City has been working on developing its own rules.
I take my cues from the drivers and see how much they want to talk. I always identify myself and tell them a little bit about the ridesharing situation in Calgary so they don’t think I’m trying to get information under false pretences. In this case, I had a free-flowing casual conversation with the driver. I was not aware that this driver was live broadcasting our discussion on the Internet, and he certainly didn’t have my consent to do so.
I told him the story, repeating what I have said many times publicly: that Calgary’s rideshare regulations are not unreasonable, and that Uber, in particular has been very difficult to deal with. I’ve called them “jerks” publicly in the past, but this time I used a more colourful term. As a guy who very rarely swears, this is probably as rude as I get, but it still wasn’t very nice or civil of me. I apologize to Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber, and his employees for my being, well, a jerk.
There is a more important issue, though, and I want to clarify. The City has always taken the position that all drivers for transportation network companies, such as Uber, should be subject to background checks conducted by the Calgary Police Service. This is the same background check that is used for taxi drivers and by many non-profit organizations in Calgary. It will identify people who have charges pending and have been pardoned for sexual offences. In my opinion, Uber’s system is simply isn’t good enough to ensure people’s safety. Indeed, Uber recently settled a case in California for $25 million for making statements about its background checks that were not true.
As I announced publicly earlier this year, the City became aware of at least one driver who passed through the background check used by Uber in Calgary despite having an active assault charge against him or her. This is the extent of my knowledge on the matter. I am not aware of anyone convicted of a sexual offence clearing the background check used by Uber in Calgary. Watching the video, I realize that I did not explain myself clearly at all. I apologize for any confusion that I have caused.
As I said in the video, I don’t know — nor should I know — how the City found out about the person who had passed through the check. However, as a regulator we must regulate. We must ensure public safety. That’s why we require vehicle inspections, that’s why we do spot checks, and that’s how we develop policy on issues like background checks. I think the public would demand no less of us.
Finally, a number of people have suggested that the law in Massachusetts doesn’t allow someone to record someone else without their consent. Be that as it may, that’s not the point. One should be the same person in private as in public and I take full responsibility for my interaction with others.”
-With files from Carolyn Kury de Castillo
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