Uber allegedly knew about a recall for cars leased out to drivers in Singapore but didn’t deal with the problem until one of the cars caught fire, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The Wall Street Journal reviewed internal Uber emails that showed that Uber knew that Honda had recalled the Vezel SUV in April 2016 for a defective electrical component. Despite the recall, the company went ahead and bought 1,000 of the SUVs and rented them out.
Then, a driver’s car — a Vezel — burst into flames in January, melting part of interior of the car and cracking the windshield, according to the WSJ. The driver escaped uninjured.
Three days later, Uber executives in San Francisco were looped into the situation in Singapore. A plan went into action that involved deactivating the faulty part. The cars would stay on the road while replacement parts came in.
This all went down while then-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was still at the helm and dealing with a growing list of problems at the company.
It’s like Uber was started by a couple of brilliant guys that have the social bearings of a hammer and this is what you get. Oh wait, that’s excatly what happened.
I can’t hate on Uber because Uber Eats brings you McDonald’s and no one’s ever asked me to give them a blow job for a free ride. They are getting raked though, and they deserve it. Whether it’s self-driving cars they keep testing with no permits, the old CEO acting like an asshole, or losing 3 billion dollars last quarter, Uber has jumped the shark because of shit like this.
Knowingly renting cars that can spontaneously catch on fire is a desperation move when you’re down on your luck and you can’t afford another disaster, so you turn away from it and hope for the best. The telling part? Even after the car exploded, they are keeping the other cars in operation and hoping replacement parts get there soon.
Keep that in mind if you plan on renting a car from Uber.
