Uber backed a Nevada ballot question that would limit how much Nevada attorneys can charge in civil cases. Attorneys said that these limits would prevent them from taking on risky cases such as claims by victims of sexual assault against Uber and its drivers.
Denied permission to film an autonomous vehicle on a public road, Levandowski did so anyway
Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 193) reports that Anthony Levandowski, then working at the Otto autonomous truck startup he founded, sought permission from the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles to video record a vehicle test on a public road. When the request was denied, Levandowski did so anyway.
Levandowski hired a lobbyist for autonomous vehicles without safety drivers
Then working at Google, Anthony Levandowski hired a lobbyist in Nevada to advocate for a law that allowed autonomous vehicles to operate without backup/safety drivers. Google didn’t know about this, and this was contrary to Google’s careful approach.
Source: Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 143)
Excesses at Las Vegas party
Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped reports excesses at an Uber employee event in Las Vegas. Total cost exceeded $25 million in cash plus $6 million of stock to performer Beyonce. In addition to transportation and lodging payments, each employee received a prepaid Visa card with additional spending money. An employee called the event “baller as fuck.”
Yet Uber’s communications leaders realized the risk to the company of such a lavish celebration. Employees were banned from wearing Uber apparel, and the Uber logos on corporate email accounts were removed so that a bystander glancing at devices would not know which company was spending so freely.
(pp. 26-29)