Uber told staff on Wednesday 2 September that it will cut about 3,300 jobs, roughly 10 per cent of its workforce and its largest reduction since the pandemic. Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said in a memo that years of fast growth had left the company too complex, and that stripping out layers of management would mean clearer ownership and faster decisions. The cuts fall on corporate and management roles, not on the drivers and couriers who work as contractors.
Khosrowshahi framed the change around building the autonomous future while also investing more in drivers, couriers and merchants. Uber does not operate its own self-driving cars. It has signed partnerships with a range of autonomous-vehicle developers and positions its app as the place their vehicles find passengers. Waymo runs driverless rides through Uber in Austin and Atlanta, and is expanding into other cities without it.
The company is reshaping itself around a product it does not control. Its robotaxi revenue rests on deals with firms that could route around it, and Uber and Waymo are now on opposite sides of a Washington bill on driverless taxis, with Uber pushing for a model that keeps human drivers in the mix and Waymo wanting to run its own network. A leaner Uber is easier to steer, but the direction is increasingly set by its partners.
Uber has not said which teams absorb the cuts, how much it plans to spend on the autonomous push, or when robotaxis are expected to carry a meaningful share of trips. It has also not said what becomes of the marketplace model if the largest autonomous operators decide they can fill their own cars.
