Following Vice President Joe Biden’s very publicized appearance, Late Show host Stephen Colbert also welcomed Uber CEO Travis Kalanick to the program Thursday night, but it was anything but friendly as Colbert hammered Kalanick on the effect his company has had on the taxi industry, surge pricing, the Uber Eats initiative, and driverless cars.
Colbert first explained how to Kalanick how he first found out about Uber before suddenly hitting him from the left on the battle the ride-sharing company has been waging with the unionized taxi cab industry: “What is your response to Uber kills professional, good-paying jobs and it's unfair to the drivers and it's destroying the cab industry.”
When Colbert demanded that he explain the idea of surge pricing and why it was in place in Australia during a December 2014 terror attack that he capped off with the question: “Is that how we should be treating each other?”
Once Kalanick firmly laid out how supply and demand works to the liberal host, the focus turned to a new initiative called Uber Eats, which also became the target of humourous complaints from Colbert:
Wait, so someone makes a tuna sandwich. It goes into the glove compartment of a Buick, somebody drives around Manhattan until the smell is strong enough that people know to order. The food just sits in the backseat? You know, I could go for a casserole that has been in the backseat of a Toyota. Really? Just sits in the car. I got to get this chicken vindaloo to the other side of the town. I think it's more popular over there.
In his final gripe, Colbert brought up Uber’s interest in driverless cars from Tesla and fretted about the advancements in technology affecting jobs:
Now, here’s another thing, I know you talk about how good this is for drivers. But you said you want like self-driving Uber cars. Then that's not for the driver. That's just, we're employing robots at that point. How is that helping delivery drivers out there?
After a relatively carefree first show, Colbert quickly showed his partisan leanings between him pleading with Biden to run for president and his pro-union arguments against the bustling tech and ride-sharing company.
The relevant portions of the transcript from CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in the early hours of September 11 can be found below.
CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
September 11, 2015
12:18 a.m. Eastern
STEPHEN COLBERT: What is your response to Uber kills professional, good-paying jobs and it's unfair to the drivers and it's destroying the cab industry.
UBER CEO TRAVIS KALANICK: My response is let's just take New York, for example. Taxi drivers spend $40,000 a year renting a car. That should be a Bentley that you're riding around in, but instead, it goes to a taxi owner who owns the licence to own and operate that cab. In the Uber world, you can use your own car. You don't pay $40,000 to rent a vehicle. You make more dollars per hour and it is flexible. You don't have a shift. You can turn on your work when you want to and turn it off. You want to pick up your kids from school, turn it off. If you want to go hang out with some friends, turn it off.
COLBERT: Explain surge pricing to me.
KALANICK: Sure.
COLBERT: Okay if I'm someplace in, say, Australia and there's a threat of a terrorist attack, why are prices triple? Is that how we should be treating each other?
KALANICK: Absolutely not.
COLBERT: But that happened.
KALANICK: What happens is when demand outstripped supply –
COLBERT: Yes.
KALANICK: – the price comes up in a particular neighborhood or across the city. If it's in a neighborhood and we see many more people need a car than there are cars available, price goes up in that area.
(....)
COLBERT: Do you ever drive an Uber?
KALANICK: Of course.
(....)
COLBERT: Do you really need the cash? Why are you doing it?
KALANICK: I mean, for me, it's just fun, right. For me –
COLBERT: Is it always fun? What happens in the backseat? Do you ever have to sponge it out after a couple gets out. Because I've heard some stories.
(....)
COLBERT: What’s Uber Eats?
KALANICK: You push a button and you get lunch in five minutes.
COLBERT: Do I call a restaurant or what happens?
KALANICK: No, you just push a button in the app, and then lunch is delivered.
(....)
KALANICK: In the Uber world, they make it, they put it in cars and then you order.
COLBERT: Wait, so someone makes a tuna sandwich. It goes into the glove compartment of a Buick, somebody drives around Manhattan until the smell is strong enough that people know to order. The food just sits in the backseat? You know, I could go for a casserole that has been in the backseat of a Toyota. Really? Just sits in the car. I got to get this chicken bindaloo to the other side of the town. I think it's more popular over there.
KALANICK: We have them in containers that are temperature controlled.
(....)
COLBERT: There are Uber Teslas?
KALANICK: Yes.
COLBERT: Now, here’s another thing, I know you talk about how good this is for drivers. But you said you want like self-driving Uber cars. Then that's not for the driver. That's just, we're employing robots at that point. How is that helping delivery drivers out there?
KALANICK: Google is doing the driverless thing, Tesla is the driverless thing, Apple is doing the driverless thing, there is going to be the world and so the question for a tech company is, do you want to be part of the future or do you want to resist the future. And we feel that in many ways we want to not be like the taxi industry before us and so, that's how we think about it.
