Uber cuts 3,300 jobs, CEO hints riders could pay less soon
Uber cut about 3,300 jobs earlier this month, close to 10% of its global headcount, and chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi now says riders should eventually see the result of that decision on their fare screen. Uber’s US mobility insurance costs rose by more than 50% per ride over a few years through the first quarter of 2025, running well ahead of inflation.
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference last week, he said the money freed up by the restructuring is going straight back into the business, and that cheaper rides sit near the top of that list. The savings go back into the business through “lowering prices, improving selection” and continued spending on growth programmes, he said. The cuts were Uber’s largest since the pandemic, and they were not presented as a rescue operation. Khosrowshahi has described the company as growing, profitable and held back mainly by its own org chart. What the layoffs buy, in his telling, is speed and spending room at a moment when robotaxi rivals are moving into cities Uber treats as home turf. He was fairly specific about the destination. Insurance is the second lever. That curve has since reversed, and part of what the company is no longer paying out is being routed into fares. There is a cross-subsidy at work too, which Khosrowshahi calls a barbell strategy. Margins from premium products such as Uber Black help fund the cheap end of the menu, including Wait & Save, which cuts the fare for riders willing to hang on a few extra minutes for a pickup.
Waymo pressure is the real reason behind Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi’s price talk
Uber reduced the number of employees sitting seven or more layers below the CEO by 20% and cut micro-teams of one or two reports by nearly half. Going forward only about 1% of staff will work remotely, with the rest expected in an office three days a week under the existing hybrid policy. Uber’s stock is down roughly 12.5% so far this year, even after climbing on the layoff announcement, and analysts have flagged autonomous vehicles as the medium-term threat to its rides business. Uber has an exclusive Waymo partnership in Austin and Atlanta, but Waymo told the company in July that it will begin selling rides through its own app alongside Uber from 2028. More than 5,000 people across 13 companies have been laid off in September so far, and investors have started reading such cuts as an AI productivity story rather than a distress signal.
Waymo has since launched autonomous rideshare in Nashville with Lyft.
Uber made the cuts from a position of strength rather than weakness, he said, adding that some companies wait and Uber does not believe in waiting. The reorganisation went deeper than headcount. Core Services engineering and science teams are being merged, and the three delivery operations arms covering restaurants, retail and direct are folding into single units at global, regional and country level. Remote work is effectively over at the company. The timing explains a lot. Uber is not the only company thinning out this month either. Khosrowshahi himself has pointed to real tailwinds in productivity from AI. His argument is that acting early beats reacting late. Riders will test that claim the next time they open the app and look at the price. Get the latest technology news and updates. Download the TOI App.