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Wozniak Doesn't Like Uber, Either

The Apple co-founder said the ride-hailing company is unfair to its drivers.

 & Tom Brant Managing Editor

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Add Steve Wozniak to the list of people who distrust Uber. He criticized the company's treatment of its drivers at a transportation conference in Sydney on Monday.

"Uber will push their workforce down to the absolute lowest minimum wage that they can get away with," he said, according to Mashable. "That's how I think of Uber: Not very nice thoughts. I want to use Lyft instead of Uber when I can now."

The Apple co-founder said that while he questions whether Uber has the best interests of its drivers at heart, he is still bullish on the sharing economy in general. It's not detrimental to jobs, he said.

"You might come up with a new technology and some old jobs disappear and there are robots building cars," he said, according to Mashable. "Well, the jobs pop up somewhere else. The economy just shifts, it moves."

Though he's not exactly a pundit, Wozniak hasn't been afraid to speak his mind on other technology-related issues in recent years. In 2012, he slammed cloud computing as "horrendous" for data privacy. More recently, he publicly declared his support for Apple as it battled with the FBI over iPhone encryption.

But despite his Apple origins, he's also criticized the company's products. About virtual assistant Siri, in 2012 he said, "A lot of people say Siri. I say poo-poo." In early 2013 he went so far as to say that Apple is "kind of losing" its cool factor.

As for Uber, the ride-sharing company's general manager for Australia David Rohrsheim countered Wozniak's claims, pointing out that the Apple celebrity isn't an Uber driver himself. "It has to be a good deal for partners or otherwise they won't use the platform," he told Mashable.

About Our Expert

Tom Brant

Tom Brant

Managing Editor

I’m a managing editor at PCMag.com focused on PC hardware. Reading this during the day? Then you've caught me testing gear and editing reviews of Wi-Fi routers, printers, laptops, and tons of other personal tech. (Reading this at night? Then I’m probably dreaming about all those cool products.) I’ve covered the consumer tech world as an editor, reporter, and analyst since 2015.

I've covered most major consumer tech events, including CES, Computex, Google I/O, and IFA. I've also appeared on CBS News, in USA Today, and at many other outlets to offer analysis on breaking technology news.

Before I joined the tech-journalism ranks, I wrote on topics as diverse as Borneo's rainforests, Middle Eastern airlines, and Big Data's role in presidential elections. A graduate of Middlebury College, I also have a master's degree in journalism and French Studies from New York University.

The Technology I Use

While most people buy a phone or laptop and stick with it for years, I’m lucky enough to use devices based on Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows daily as part of my job. As a result, I cycle through lots of tech in addition to my IT-issue work laptop. (Yes, that's a ThinkPad.) Personally, I’ve also owned a lot of tech products both cutting-edge and cringeworthy, from the Nintendo GameCube and the original MacBook to the Palm m105 and the CueCat.

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