Things Uber CEO Travis Kalanick May Have Said In His TED Talk Today

Things Uber CEO Travis Kalanick May Have Said In His TED Talk Today

Today in Vancouver, the annual mind orgy TED welcomed Uber CEO Travis Kalanick to the stage. Did he talk about the logo? Did he talk about how cities are bringing him down? What did he say? You could wait a few months for the video — or you could take these people’s words for it.

Now keep in mind, the only reports we have of Kalanick’s talk are coming from people who either paid $US8000 ($11,265) or more per ticket to attend this event or people who attended for free. They may not be reliable narrators. But from what I can piece together he did talk about the logo and how cities are bringing him down. And how he couldn’t take an Uber from the Vancouver airport because, well, cities are bringing him down.

Why he changed the logo

A ‘U’ doesn’t mean anything in Mandarin.”

Why public transit isn’t a good solution for getting around

Mass transit hasn’t yet figured out how to get to everybody’s doorstep.”

Instead we should all use unlicensed cabs like early-1900s LA

There was an Uber way before Uber. If it had survived the future of transportation would probably already be here.”

We have a bright, self-driving future

Instead of resisting technology like the taxi or trolley industry, we have to embrace it.”

Yet cities are crushing Uber’s growth

There’s just one hitch — it’s called regulation.”

So here are his plans for your car

With a little smart regulation, we can turn every car into a shared car.”

All in all, Kalanick seemed to be generally well-received

Top image via Getty


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.