Uber under Investigation by the FBI

At the moment, the largest competitor to Uber in the United States is Lyft. Uber has been accused of interfering with the operation of Lyft. This is why Uber is currently under the investigation of the United States Attorney’s office in New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. These two law enforcing agencies believe that Uber engaged in illegal tactics through software. According to the FBI, Uber designed a special program called Hell. According to Uber employees who could only speak after they cut a deal for anonymity, they said that Uber used this program to learn about the tactics being used by Lyft in the United States and other markets that the companies were competitors. Through a spokesman, Uber declined to answer to these allegations but said that they were working with the investigators. This investigation was brought to light by the Wall Street Journal. Both the FBI and the United States attorney’s office refused to talk about the issue. These legal battles are as a result of the aggression culture that was introduced by the former chief executive officer Travis Kalanick. Some of these tactics were outside the rule of law and this might be the reason why Mr. Kalanick was kicked out of his position as CEO.

At the same time, it has been revealed that the Justice Department is investigating on another matter where Uber evaded law enforcement. The software is known as Greyball and was used in cities where the company was not authorized to operate. On another personal struggle, the ride giant company is dealing with a lawsuit in India where a company official has been accused of bribing Indian officials. When it comes to self-driving car technology, Uber is fighting an intellectual lawsuit with Waymo which is a major competitor to the Uber. The Hell program was discovered in April by The Information which is a technology news website. However, Uber stopped using this program one year ago. The questions that law enforcement officers want to answer is whether Uber was part of this unlawful access of a competitor’s computer systems. The current chief executive of Uber Dara Khosrowshahi resigned from The New York Times Company board. He has been working with the company since the year 2015. Papers filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by the New York Times sought to clarify the decision by Mr. Khosrowshahi to step down. The Times said that no disagreements were involved.