Uber CEO: We're in a Political Battle with an 'Assh*le'

RANCHOS PALOS VERDES, California — Uber cofounder and CEO Travis Kalanick described his ride-service company's battle with entrenched city-regulated taxi services as a political war.

"We were in a campaign where the candidate is Uber and the incumbent is an asshole called 'taxi,'" said Kalanick.

The outspoken CEO said his business, which lets drivers use their own cars to deliver taxi services outside the sanctioned and city-controlled taxi systems in a number of major metropolitan cities, is fighting deeply entrenched systems.
"You're changing the ways cities work, and that's fundamentally a third rail," Kalanick said in an interview with Recode's Kara Swisher at the Code Conference on Wednesday.

New York City, for example has a tightly controlled number of NYC Medallions that the city gives out to taxi drivers.

NYC also regulates the fares drivers can charge. Kalanick said this is the reason you can't get a taxi at 10:30 p.m. on a Friday. Uber will expand the number of cars in the service as demand expand, according to Kalanick.

AT&T and Uber

AT&T will provide connectivity to Uber drivers who operate on the company's platform, which matches available cars with needy riders, Uber announced on Wednesday.

Uber's app will also come preloaded on AT&T Android phones. The deal will help Uber use AT&T's network to fuels its expansion into new markets, Uber spokesperson Nairi Hourdajian wrote in a blog post.

"We are marching toward UberEVERYWHERE, and to do it, we are moving beyond expansion to individual cities and simply toward coverage, maximizing the reach of the Uber network," Hourdajian wrote.

What price and robots

Kalanick confirmed on stage that Uber is seeking funding at what could be a "record-breaking" valuation. A recent report put the company's value at $17 billion. While Kalanick did not mention that number, he did say, "Folks have seen what’s been reported — it could be in that neck of the woods."

When asked what he thought of Google's self-driving cars, Kalanick smiled and said he loves them "all day long," and he sees real practical use for them in Uber's business.

"The magic [of a self-driving uber car] is, the reason Uber could be expensive is because you’re paying for the other dude in the car [the driver]. When there isn’t another dude in the car, the cost for taking a road trip becomes cheaper."