For much of Silicon Valley, the past year has been a period of reckoning. Twitter and Snapchat have slumped; a number of buzzy, well-funded misfires like Theranos and Juicero have flamed out; and a once-competitive industry continues to consolidate. The political climate has chilled, too: Facebook is in Capitol Hill’s crosshairs and resentment is building toward Amazon just as tech leaders across the Bay Area are grappling with long-standing issues of sexism and gender discrimination. Perhaps no tech firm has been more battered by these overlapping crises than Uber, which has been rocked by doubts about its valuation, its association with Donald Trump, and an executive exodus that included the resignation of C.E.O. Travis Kalanick following a bruising sexual-harassment scandal.

If anyone is unfazed by Silicon Valley’s annus horribilis, it’s Lyft’s John Zimmer and Logan Green. The kinder, gentler ride-hailing alternative is currently valued at about $7.5 billion, little more than a tenth the size of Uber, which remains the world’s most valuable private tech company. But Lyft has had an enviable, and eventful, 2017, gaining market share as Uber tumbled; developing its own self-driving technology; and partnering with autonomous-car companies nuTonomy, Drive.ai, and Waymo, the latter of which is currently trying to sue Uber into oblivion. Here, Zimmer and Green talk about Lyft’s strategy amid Uber’s fall from grace, their vision for a still-unprofitable industry, and why, even in a future of self-driving cars, Lyft will never need fewer drivers than it has now.

The Hive: Between the #deleteuber campaign in January and Uber’s scandals this summer, Lyft has succeeded, in part, just by staying out of trouble. Was that part of your strategy?

John Zimmer: I think for a while people talked about who’s winning, who’s going to win, and it was about winning for winning’s sake. And for us that’s not what it’s about. It’s—yes, we are competitive. We like winning. But we want to win for a reason: because this industry is going to have a major impact on how cities work, how people get around, how cities are built. It’s critical to us, we feel a responsibility to that, the company has a strong set of values around taking care of people who are part of the business. As people got to see that, Lyft got to shine this year.

How have you capitalized on Kalanick’s stumbles?

Zimmer: Just by doubling down on who we are and being ourselves. Rather than being reactive by focusing on our drivers and passengers—they care about the service they’re getting from us. They care about how we’re serving them. They don’t care about what’s happening somewhere else.

In an interview in January, John said that what differentiates Lyft from Uber is that it’s “woke,” or more socially conscious. Lyft donated $1 million to the A.C.L.U. the same weekend as the #deleteuber campaign; earlier this month, you both issued statements about Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). What political obligations does a tech company have under a Trump presidency?

Logan Green: We felt really good to be in a position to have a statement and have an impact on the national dialogue. We were incredibly upset and frustrated to see what Trump has done on the immigration front. Because of the scale Lyft operates at today, we’re fortunate to make a big statement and take a stand by working with the A.C.L.U.

Zimmer: The other thing we’ve done is a program called “round up and donate.” We want everyone to participate; sometimes today it can feel hard to have an impact, but in fact, when everyone contributes together we can make a big difference. It wasn’t just us picking who we would support—we gave the choice to our passenger community.