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Uber, seemingly in permanent murky water in D.C., has a funny way of playing damage control.
Last Saturday night, Bridget Todd, an activist and former lecturer at Howard University tweeted at the company that her Uber driver choked her after she kissed her husband in the back of the vehicle because he didn’t approve of her interracial relationship, according to Valleywag.
In response, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick emailed the company’s PR team (and apparently included a Valleywag reporter on the e-mail list) warning them to “make sure these writers don’t come away thinking we are responsible when these things do go bad…for whatever reason these writers are starting to think we are somewhat liable for these incidents that aren’t even real in the first place.”
Kalanick also issued a more objective press release to the site on the matter, writing that “it is our understanding is that an argument broke out between the driver utilizing Uber’s technology and one of his passengers – an argument that was provoked by the passenger. The police approached the scene and neither party elected to press charges. If legal action is taken, Uber remains committed to helping appropriate law enforcement agencies in any way possible.”
The driver’s full account of the incident can be found here.
Back in March, the U.S. Attorney’s Office opted not to charge an Uber driver for allegedly raping a female passenger.
Sedan picture via Shutterstock