Uber to lay off 3,300 employees as competition with robotaxis grow
Uber headquarters in San Francisco, California, US, on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. Uber Technologies Inc. is scheduled to release earnings figures on August 6. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Ride-share giant Uber announced plans to lay off nearly 10% of its workforce as growing competition from autonomous vehicles and robotaxis heats up the ride-hailing industry.
What they're saying:
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told employees Wednesday that about 3,300 of the company’s 34,000 workers will be laid off, marking Uber’s largest round of job cuts since the COVID-19 pandemic. Khosrowshahi said the restructuring is intended to reduce layers of management and organizational complexity that have slowed decision-making.
"A leaner organization will mean clearer ownership, faster decisions, and more time spent building rather than coordinating. It will also generate savings that we intend to reinvest in growth, innovation, and the capabilities that will matter most over the coming years," Khosrowshahi said.
What we know:
The restructuring will reduce by 20% the number of employees working seven or more levels below the CEO, while cutting in half the number of teams with managers who oversee only one or two direct reports.
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The other side:
Autonomous vehicles and driverless ride-hailing services have expanded rapidly in recent years, with Alphabet’s Waymo launching its commercial robotaxi service in 2018. While Waymo currently offers rides through Uber in two U.S. cities, it is also expanding into additional markets independently.
RELATED: Driverless robotaxis to expand into more US cities
Competition is also growing from Amazon’s Zoox and Tesla’s Cybercab, raising concerns that the expanding robotaxi industry could eventually challenge Uber’s dominant position in the ride-hailing business.
Dig deeper:
In the announcement, Khosrowshahi stopped short of blaming the layoffs on AI, which has increasingly been cited by tech executives as a factor behind workforce reductions across the industry.
Uber, however, has been aggressively adopting the technology, reportedly driving up costs in the process. According to media reports, employees exhausted the company’s entire 2026 AI budget in just four months.
The Source: This story was written with information provided by Reuters and previous reporting by LiveNOW from FOX. This story was reported from Orlando.