Uber CEO hints at cheaper rides after 3,300 job cuts

Uber just fired 3,300 people, and its CEO wants you to know this is actually good news for riders. At the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference on September 10, Dara Khosrowshahi said the company plans to funnel savings from its massive workforce reduction back into cheaper rides and expanded service options. The cuts, announced September 2, wiped out roughly 10% of Uber’s global workforce of approximately 34,000 employees. It’s the company’s deepest round of layoffs since 2020, when the pandemic temporarily cratered demand for getting into strangers’ cars. The logic behind the layoffs Khosrowshahi framed the restructuring as an overdue cleanup. Years of rapid growth had apparently left Uber bloated with too many management layers and what the company described as inefficient micro-teams. The goal now is a flatter organizational structure with faster decision-making and clearer ownership over projects. The restructuring is also a defensive maneuver. Alphabet’s Waymo has been steadily expanding its autonomous taxi service, and Uber’s leadership clearly views robotaxis as an existential competitive threat in key markets. The company has committed more than $10 billion to...