Uber's legal battle involves proving that the Travis Kalanick era is over

The name of Travis Kalanick only appeared once for seven hours of legal back and forth Monday, but his presence held a prominent place in a London audience room where Uber is leading a major regulatory battle.

Uber is trying to win back his operator license in London, and his success depends on the question of whether he is sufficiently convincing that he has gone beyond the bad days of his former general manager.

London's transport regulator, TfL, revoked the Uber license in September for medical checkups of drivers online, using the "Greyball" software to escape the regulators and its low rate report serious incidents to the police. other issues.

In court, Uber argued that it has fundamentally changed over the next nine months, mainly thanks to the new chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi. He also pointed to the departure of his main British leader, Jo Bertram, and major domestic policy changes to prioritize passenger safety as signs of a new roadmap.

Maintaining this argument involved reversals of the situation and clumsy confessions by company personnel who took the witness stand.

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In one case, Uber sought to blame Bertram for several problems, such as the fact that it misled TfL and the High Court about how it accepts rates. Bertram, having left Uber shortly after the company lost his license, will not appear in court.

Uber admitted that Bertram had given inaccurate information to TfL in 2014 when she said that Uber was processing bookings and rates directly. Uber repeated the same argument during a successful battle in the High Court. But in a later case on driver rights, Uber is contradicted and said that the drivers were actually initially responsible for accepting the fares.

"It would not be an unfair inference than in the past [Uber London] has tended to say what he thought was most useful in a particular circumstance, "said TfL lawyer Martin Chamberlain.

Tom Elvidge, general manager of Uber in the UK and Ireland, responded by suggesting that Bertram had not fully understood how Uber systems worked. "The people involved … I think would have [had] an inadequate understanding of how the system has behaved, "he said, in a visibly nervous demonstration in the witness box.

Uber executives have distanced themselves from a corporate culture created by Travis Kalanick – despite the fact that he was working under his direction

Elvidge and another Uber UK executive, Fred Jones, have sought to recast Uber's arm in the UK as a reformed and matured society since Kalanick.

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"I think the company had come to a place where it was perhaps easier not to always give so much information, and that absolutely changed … It was really clear that the culture of Company that had been developed under the previous leadership had to change, "said Elvidge.

Chamberlain replied, "That's Travis Kalanick." He then explained that Kalanick had left Uber on leave last summer and that Khosrowshahi had been appointed successor last August.

He asked if Kalanick was still involved with Uber, with Elvidge confirming that the former CEO still had a seat on the board and remained a shareholder.

Chamberlain is asked if it was possible that a culture that had developed under Kalanick for five years could credibly change in nine months. He also pointed out that several British staff members who had worked in this culture were still there, especially Elvidge himself, Fred Jones, and the head of European politics Andrew Byrne, among others.

"[It’s] The same people who run a business that we accept nine months ago are not "clean and correct," said Chamberlain, who could only answer that he and others "were occupying different posts ".

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"Even though it is true that I have been in Uber for almost four years now, I believe the approach we take, [the] the changes we mentioned … are fundamentally different, "he said.

Another awkward confession came from Fred Jones, who apologized for the defensive manner in which Uber responded to TfL's decision last September.

Jones had appeared on Sky News the day TfL had decided not to renew Uber's license, and had accused TfL of "caving" to a small number of critics. In court, Jones said the answer was "false, and I apologize without reservation for that."

This is one of the many excuses that Uber has to make to try to prove that it's changed – and eventually the company will have to convince Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot.

Arbuthnot will not necessarily be easy to persuade. In her opening remarks, she said that she would look at Uber "officials" when it was deemed unfit and appropriate to hold a London license.

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"If they were still here and by the way, I would feel rather uncomfortable," she said.

The audience continues.