Uber CEO on Saudi Killing of Jamal Khashoggi: ‘People Make Mistakes’
EXCUSE ME?
The CEO of Uber has compared the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi to “mistakes” his company made with self-driving cars. In an interview with Axios, Dara Khosrowshahi was asked about Khashoggi’s brutal murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last year. Saudi Arabia is Uber’s fifth-largest shareholder and the head of the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund is on its board of directors. “I think that [the Saudi] government said that they made a mistake,” Khosrowshahi said. “It’s a serious mistake. We’ve made mistakes, too, with self-driving and we stopped driving and we’re recovering from that mistake. People make mistakes. It doesn’t mean that they can never be forgiven. I think they’ve taken it seriously.” Khosrowshahi called Axios after the interview to express regret for what he said and later sent a statement saying: “I said something in the moment that I do not believe. When it comes to Jamal Khashoggi, his murder was reprehensible and should not be forgotten or excused.”