Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has apologized to his staff after calling the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi a “mistake” during an interview on the HBO show Axios on Sunday.
Speaking at the company’s weekly all-hands meeting on Tuesday, Khosrowshahi reportedly said it was wrong to refer to the killing, which has been blamed on the Saudi government, as a mistake and for comparing it to the death of a woman who was hit by an Uber self-driving car in 2018, according to the Washington Post, which first reported the apology.
“I am sorry for what I said during that interview,” he said. “I think some folks are right to have been outraged. All of us have to take responsibility for what we do and be accountable, so I will take that accountability as your leader.
“I don’t believe that the Khashoggi murder is something to be forgiven or forgotten, and I was plain wrong to compare it to anything that we have been through,” he added. “That was absolutely wrong.”
Khashoggi was a Saudi national and a journalist who often wrote for the Washington Post. He was murdered in October 2018 inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul as he went to pick up a marriage certificate. According to the CIA, he was strangled by Saudi government operatives, who are suspected to have been operating at the behest of the country’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. The prince later said he “bears responsibly” for Khashogghi’s death, but that he did not know about it beforehand. The case sparked an international outcry.
The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia is the fifth-largest shareholder in Uber , as well as one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world. The head of the fund also sits on Uber’s board.
In his interview with Axios, Khosrowshahi had been asked about Saudi involvement in the company. He responded by calling Khashoggi’s murder “a mistake,” and compared it to mistakes Uber made with pursuing self-driving cars, which have been involved in numerous crashes. “I think that people make mistakes, it doesn’t mean they can never be forgiven,” he said.
Khosrowshahi had previously backtracked his comments in a written statement after the episode aired, but had not yet fully apologized. The comments caused a minor uproar and a fresh round of the #BoycottUber movement on social media.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.