Uber may be one of the most formidable businesses of our times but it is also something of an ideological piñata, which everyone with a grievance loves to whack. Those wielding the sticks include taxi drivers who have had their livelihoods undercut; Uber drivers who claim to be exploited; and politicians who complain the ride-hailing company is shirking its social responsibilities and outsourcing its obligations.
Judges, too, have joined the fray in several jurisdictions. Last month a UK tribunal dismissed Uber’s claims that it did not employ its drivers as ridiculous.
That gnarly mood is captured by James O’Brien, a London-based talk radio presenter, who says Uber is “like the Frankenstein’s monster of everything that’s gone wrong with modern capitalism”.