Uber’s chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, apologised in an open letter for the mistakes made in London in hopes to get their license renewed.
The letter comes after the news that Transport for London has decided not to renew the car-hailing app’s contract, which will end 30 September.
“While Uber has revolutionised the way people move in cities around the world, it’s equally true that we’ve got things wrong along the way. On behalf of everyone at Uber globally, I apologise for the mistakes we’ve made,” wrote Khosrowshahi.
“We will appeal [against] the decision on behalf of millions of Londoners, but we do so with the knowledge that we must also change.”
The chief executive also used Twitter to apologise, writing: “Dear London: we r far from perfect but we have 40k licensed drivers and 3.5mm Londoners depending on us. Pls work w/us to make things right.”
This apologising tone was slightly different from Fred Jones, another executive from Uber, who said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the company did not understand TfL’s concerns.
“Sitting down with TfL representatives as soon as possible would be the most helpful thing to really understand their concerns, to work out what they are. It is just not clear to us what those concerns are.”
He did, however, acknowledge one specific incident.
“We hold our hands up, we made a mistake. In that incident, we just didn’t realise when that passenger wrote in how serious it was.”
Londoners have shown outrage at TfL’s decision to end Uber’s contract. Over 740,000 people have so far signed a petition calling for TfL to allow Uber to operate.
Also speaking on Today Programme, Sadiq Khan defended his decision.
“I want companies that abide by the rules, I want companies that innovate, harbour new technologies, I want disruptive technology coming to London but you’ve got to play by the rule,” he said.