Uber CEO：洗白还需要些日子

 　　SAN FRANCISCO — Uber CEO Travis Kalanick honored his controversial ride-sharing service at an event on Wednesday with surprisingly humble¹ words to celebrate its five year anniversary.

　　三藩市报道：在上周三（6月3日）的一次公开活动，Uber公司的执行总裁Travis Kalanick，以异常谦虚的致辞褒奖了他备受争议的驾驶共享服务，庆祝公司创立五周年。

　　During the media event, the 38-year-old entrepreneur recalled how his business — now worth $50 billion — was born out of a conversation sparked in Paris with co-founder Garrett Camp, and how, in the early days, they barely had enough money "to keep the lights on." Kalanick acknowledged his mother in the audience and waxed poetic² about a not-so-distant future: a world where transportation, goods and services are 5 minutes away, deliverable at the "touch of a button."

　　在本次的媒体见面会中，这一位38岁的企业家回忆了他的企业——如今市值500亿美元的公司，如何从一次在巴黎与合作伙伴Garrett Camp交谈中的灵光一现，到早些日子，他们几乎没有资金去维持这项事业的运行。Kalanick在受访中感谢他的母亲，并描绘出一个不远的将来的景象：世界上所有的交通，物品以及服务都只需要通过“点击按钮”，就能在5分钟内完成传递。

　　"I can come off as a fierce advocate for Uber," he said. "I also realize that some have used a different 'A' word to describe me. I’ll be the first to admit that I'm not perfect and neither is this company."

　　“我能表现得像一名Uber的狂热追随者，”他表示，“我同时也意识到有些追随者用不一样的“A”来形容我，首先我要承认的是，我并不完美，我的公司也是。”

　　When I first met Kalanick in January 2012, Uber wasn't so polished, so much as frat-like. The service was just in eight cities then — a far cry from the 300 cities it is in now. Its haphazard³ offices occupied the top floor of a small building in San Francisco's shopping district — not the sleek⁴, sprawling⁵ 200,000 square foot headquarters it inhabits today. And Kalanick wasn’t yet the buttoned-up leader recalling Uber's birth as a sweet Parisian brainstorm⁶.

　　当笔者在2012年1月份与Kalanick的初次见面的时候，Uber并不完善，更多的像一个兄弟会。打车服务当时只限于8个城市，跟如今的纵横300个城市天壤之别。随机的办公室坐落在三藩市商务区的一间小房屋的顶楼，而不是如今井然有条、覆盖200,000平方英尺的总部。并且在当时，Kalanick还不能把Uber的创立看作美妙的巴黎头脑风暴。

　　“In the beginning, it was a lifestyle company," Kalanick told me then, tossing a mini-NERF football around in a red Radio Shack⁷ shirt, faded jeans and sneakers. The gray-haired entrepreneur liked to punctuate⁸ his sentences with a wide grin and brief pause, letting his words sink in.

　　“在公司起步的时候，营业方向还只是生活时尚，”Kalanick当时告诉笔者，当时他还穿着无线电公司的红色衬衫，褪色的牛仔裤和球鞋，脚上玩弄着迷你汽车轮胎做成的足球。这位白发的企业家很喜欢露齿并短暂的停顿来中断自己的句子，以便别人把自己的话听进去。

　　"You push a button and a black car comes up," he added. "I mean, who’s the baller? It was a baller move to get a black car to arrive in eight minutes.”

　　“你按了一个按钮，结果来了一辆黑车，”他补充道，“我的意思是，‘谁’是开黑车的人？就是那个去取一辆黑车，然后在8分钟后到达的人。

　　Kalanick could be so determined⁹, a former girlfriend of his told me he spent one International CES sleeping in a rented van and taking hobo baths — washing himself in a public sink — at a Mandarin¹⁰ Oriental hotel nearby.

　　Kalanick这么坚定，他的一位前女友告诉笔者，他曾经在国际电子展上的一辆出租货车上睡了一晚还洗了个流浪汉澡——在公共的澡堂里洗澡——就在附近的文华东方酒店。

　　"Don't let the gray hair fool you: he's like this tireless kid, always coming back for more," she said.

　　“别让白头发耍了你：他就像一个不知疲倦的小孩，总是回来要求更多的东西。”她说道。

　　Others who worked with him at previous companies had mixed things to say. But there was a clear takeaway: he was a smart, numbers crunching¹¹ geek who could also be an uncompromising businessman.

　　还有一些曾经在以前的公司与他一起工作的同事有不同的说法。但他们都一致同意：他是一个聪明的，喜欢咀嚼数字的怪咖，也是一名不愿妥协的商人。

　　In 2001, he co-founded Red Swoosh — a file-sharing system for corporate¹² clients — which he referred to as a “revenge business.” He wanted Hollywood litigants¹³ who sued his previous startup, a multimedia¹⁴ search engine called Scour¹⁵, to pay for a similar technology. Why?

　　在2001年，他与别人共同创办了Red Swoosh——一个为公司客户所开放的文件共享系统，被他称为“复仇产业”。他希望那位起诉他之前的公司，一个名为Scour的多媒体搜索引擎的好莱坞诉讼人，能够付出类似的技术代价。为什么呢？

　　"I like pissing people off," Kalanick said back in 2012. "I like shaking things up in an old industry and making something new and different."

　　“我喜欢惹别人生气，”Kalanick在2012年的时候表示。“我喜欢在旧的公司里改变一些东西去创造一些新的不一样的东西。”

　　Mission accomplished¹⁶. Since its launch, Uber has transformed transportation, upending decades of crusty taxi regulation and transforming the way people get around. In cities like San Francisco now, locals don't take cabs, anymore — they eitherUber or Lyft.

　　任务完成。自从它的营业运行，Uber已经改变的交通方式，使得一成不变的打车体制得到了历史性的转变，改善了人们出行的方式。就像在三藩市这样的城市，当地人们已经不再呼叫出租车了，他们使用Uber或Lyft。

　　Credit Kalanick's anti-establishment attitude for the company's rapid growth, too. Uber launched in new markets and dealt with the consequences later. Kalanick welcomed controversy¹⁷, egging on regulators in Washington D.C. and elsewhere like a man with six months to live.

　　在这里也要赞扬一下Kalanick对公司快速发展的反建制的态度。Uber随后就在新的市场并处理了新的事情。Kalanick开放接纳不同的意见，敦促华盛顿以及其他地区的监督者修改体制，就像他只剩下6个月生存的时间一样。

　　But when you're a company reportedly valued at $50 billion, rebelliousness¹⁸ stops being cute, and the public becomes far less forgiving.

　　但当你的公司被公告出市值500亿美元的时候，反动的声音就不再友善，公众也就越来越无法原谅你的错误。

　　Bad publicity¹⁹ soon caught up with Uber. The service got flack over cutthroat tactics with rival Lyft. Last November, an Uber executive caused a ruckus when he off-handedly suggested Uber conduct opposition²⁰ research to dig up dirt on its critics.

　　负面的宣传很快就侵袭了Uber。这些服务因恶性的商业宣传手段和竞争对手Lyft造成了负面的宣传效果。去年11月，Uber的一名行政人员的不经意的言论，建议Uber进行对手调查挖掘负面消息造成了骚动。

　　There were also reports that drivers sexually harassed²¹ or assaulted female passengers and allegations of discrimination against blind and wheelchair-using riders. And partnerships²², like the one announced in March with U.N. Women, fell apart, ostensibly over such allegations.

　　也有报告表明司机对女乘客进行性骚扰或性侵犯，甚至还有明确歧视失明人员和伤残人士的断言。至于合作关系，就像3月份在联合国妇女事务机构所宣称的，在这些言论的压力之下只是表明上的断绝关系。

　　So it's no surprise then Uber is working hard on cleaning up its image with initiatives like an updated Uber app that caters²³ to deaf and hard-of-hearing drivers, Uber Military, which enlists²⁴ service members, veterans and military spouses²⁵ as drivers, and now Wednesday's media event. For drivers, these initiatives are a win, even if the timing²⁶ is convenient for Uber.

　　所以毫无疑问的Uber正努力地为公司形象洗白它的形象，从主动更新的手机应用Uber以迎合失聪或听觉障碍的司机，到Uber Military，把士兵，退休军人以及军属的名单如同司机的名单列出来，在到本次的媒体见面会。对于司机来说，这些积极性的举措对他们来说就已经赢了，即使在时机上Uber占据了便利。

　　What's somewhat harder to accept is a humbler Kalanick and softer, nicer Uber so soon after months of negative publicity. Genuine atonement usually takes much longer.

　　有点难以接受的是，在数月负面宣传后的Kalanick变得更谦虚了，Uber也更便利更人性化了。但是真正的赎罪需要更长的时间来完成。

1 humble   

adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低

参考例句：

• In my humble opinion,he will win the election.依我拙见，他将在选举中获胜。
• Defeat and failure make people humble.挫折与失败会使人谦卑。

2 poetic   

adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的

参考例句：

• His poetic idiom is stamped with expressions describing group feeling and thought.他的诗中的措辞往往带有描写群体感情和思想的印记。
• His poetic novels have gone through three different historical stages.他的诗情小说创作经历了三个不同的历史阶段。

3 haphazard   

adj.无计划的，随意的，杂乱无章的

参考例句：

• The town grew in a haphazard way.这城镇无计划地随意发展。
• He regrerted his haphazard remarks.他悔不该随口说出那些评论话。

4 sleek   

adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢

参考例句：

• Women preferred sleek,shiny hair with little decoration.女士们更喜欢略加修饰的光滑闪亮型秀发。
• The horse's coat was sleek and glossy.这匹马全身润泽有光。

5 sprawling   

adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着）

参考例句：

• He was sprawling in an armchair in front of the TV. 他伸开手脚坐在电视机前的一张扶手椅上。
• a modern sprawling town 一座杂乱无序拓展的现代城镇

6 brainstorm   

vi.动脑筋，出主意，想办法，献计，献策

参考例句：

• The women meet twice a month to brainstorm and set business goals for each other.她们每个月聚会两次，在一起出谋献策，为各自制定生意目标。
• We can brainstorm a list of the most influential individuals in the company.我们可以集体讨论，列出该公司中最有影响的人员的名单。

7 shack   

adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚

参考例句：

• He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack.在走到他的茅棚以前，他不得不坐在地上歇了五次。
• The boys made a shack out of the old boards in the backyard.男孩们在后院用旧木板盖起一间小木屋。

8 punctuate   

vt.加标点于；不时打断

参考例句：

• The pupils have not yet learned to punctuate correctly.小学生尚未学会正确使用标点符号。
• Be sure to punctuate your sentences with the correct marks in the right places.一定要在你文章句子中的正确地方标上正确的标点符号。

9 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

10 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

11 crunching   

v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的现在分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄

参考例句：

• The horses were crunching their straw at their manger. 这些马在嘎吱嘎吱地吃槽里的草。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The dog was crunching a bone. 狗正嘎吱嘎吱地嚼骨头。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

13 litigants   

n.诉讼当事人( litigant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Litigants of the two parties may reconcile of their own accord. 双方当事人可以自行和解。 来自口语例句
• The litigants may appeal against a judgment or a ruling derived from the retrial. 当事人可就重审案件的判决或裁定进行上诉。 来自口语例句

14 multimedia   

adj.多种手段的，多媒体的；n.多媒体

参考例句：

• Multimedia is the combination of computer and video technology.多媒体是计算机和视频技术的结合。
• Adam raised the issue of multimedia applications and much useful discussion ensued.亚当提出了多媒体应用的问题，从而引发了许多有益的讨论。

15 scour   

v.搜索；擦，洗，腹泻，冲刷

参考例句：

• Mother made me scour the family silver.母亲让我擦洗家里的银器。
• We scoured the telephone directory for clues.我们仔细查阅电话簿以寻找线索。

16 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

17 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

18 rebelliousness   

n. 造反，难以控制

参考例句：

• Any requirement that may be construed as 'compulsory' will evoke some rebelliousness. 任何可以解释成“必须做的”要求都会激起一些反动情绪。
• Obstinate or contemptuous resistance to authority; stubborn rebelliousness. '叛逆'。''性顽固的或藐视性的反抗权威；顽固的''。'叛逆'。''性。

19 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。

20 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

21 harassed   

adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He has complained of being harassed by the police. 他投诉受到警方侵扰。
• harassed mothers with their children 带着孩子的疲惫不堪的母亲们

22 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

23 caters   

提供饮食及服务( cater的第三人称单数 )； 满足需要，适合

参考例句：

• That shop caters exclusively to the weaker sex. 那家商店专供妇女需要的商品。
• The boutique caters for a rather select clientele. 这家精品店为特定的顾客群服务。

24 enlists   

v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的第三人称单数 )；获得（帮助或支持）

参考例句：

• This method enlists the orchestration by creating its activation subscription. 此方法通过创建业务流程的激活订阅来登记业务流程。 来自互联网
• Party spirit enlists a man's virtue in the cause of his vice. 党派心使人的美德也为罪恶效劳。 来自互联网

25 spouses   

n.配偶，夫或妻( spouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Jobs are available for spouses on campus and in the community. 校园里和社区里有配偶可做的工作。 来自辞典例句
• An astonishing number of spouses-most particularly in the upper-income brackets-have no close notion of their husbands'paychecks. 相当大一部分妇女——特别在高收入阶层——并不很了解他们丈夫的薪金。 来自辞典例句

26 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。