No more steering wheel!

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-set-hold-cybercab-event-austin-texas-2026-09-02/

Date: September 3, 2026
Venue: Gigafactory Texas / Tesla Austin (1 Tesla Road)
The event is invite-only. Tesla is widely expected to livestream it on X.


Uber announces it's biggest layoff since COVID. Uber plans to spend more than $10 BILLION to compete in autonomous transportation. Lots of gig workers eventually displaced.

Quote:

---

Uber is cutting about 10% of its staff globally, in a massive restructuring aimed at reducing management layers and reallocating spending into its ride-sharing, delivery and robotaxi businesses.

---

Uber is cutting about 10% of its staff globally, in a massive restructuring aimed at reducing management layers and reallocating spending into its ride-sharing, delivery and robotaxi businesses. Read more: https://t.co/iykjizBIhL

📷: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg pic.twitter.com/rnD0BjgX85

— Bloomberg (@business) September 2, 2026

Rode Waymo cars in San Francisco a few weeks ago. Great experience other than it wouldn't pick us up or drop us off in front of our hotel. Area was a little sketchy.

No surprise with the Uber layoffs - most fast growing companies usually need a reset within a few years.

javajaws said:

---

No surprise with the Uber layoffs - most fast growing companies usually need a reset within a few years.

---

Uber has been a fast growing company for more than a few years...

Hell the show about Uber is probably now more than a few years old

TAMUallen said:

---

javajaws said:

---

No surprise with the Uber layoffs - most fast growing companies usually need a reset within a few years.

---

Uber has been a fast growing company for more than a few years...

Hell the show about Uber is probably now more than a few years old

---

Sorry, bad choice of word for people not "me" I guess. I forget this is the internet where anything and everything is criticized.

I just flippantly use the word "few" to mean more than most people use it for. Compared to long established companies, 15 or so years is still "young" in my mind and so I associate such a company as only being around "a few" years...even up to that 15 year range.

Uber was a black car service, then expanded to allowing people to tote individual passengers from place to place in their Prius and then ultimately expanded to UberPool allowing passengers headed in the same direction to get in the same car and annoy each other. Why do you think it's called Uber?

Lyft was the poor person version that started as a carpooling company.

BMX Bandit said:

---

Quote:

---

The original model was to get people together who were going the same direction.

---

Uber was originally all black towncars. So I don't think your statement is accurate. It was meant to be a competitor to taxis from the beginning.

---

In other words, Uber has never been a "ride-sharing" service. Just an illegal taxi company from day 1.
I never quite understood how Uber was allowed to operate in cities with strict controls on taxi services.

I was reliably told that it would take regulators longer to allow the vehicles to operate than it would take for the technology to be developed. Waymo expanded to 3 more markets yesterday. Tesla is approved for up to 5,000 vehicles in Nevada.

Why are you still hung up on the word "ride sharing"? You a taxi driver?

When uber came out, it was such a refreshing breath of fresh air. Not being regulated like cabs was part of what made it great.

Sorry, you were wrong about how/why it started and the original model

I see cypercabs around Round Rock everyday and they all have drivers and steering wheels. Today the driver was driving the one I saw today but not always

I guess the ones coming tomorrow are the model without the steering wheel

Fightin_Aggie said:

---

I see cypercabs around Round Rock everyday and they all have drivers and steering wheels. Today the driver was driving the one I saw today but not always

I guess the ones coming tomorrow are the model without the steering wheel

---

I have seen a few cyber cabs out on 71 in Bastrop, but they always had a driver behind the wheel.

Fightin_Aggie said:

---

I guess the ones coming tomorrow are the model without the steering wheel

---

Correct.

BMX Bandit said:

---

Quote:

---

The original model was to get people together who were going the same direction.

---

Uber was originally all black towncars. So I don't think your statement is accurate. It was meant to be a competitor to taxis from the beginning.

---

True, they came up with the term "ride sharing" to get past rules against unlicensed taxi services.

torrid said:

---

techno-ag said:

---

"To reduce management layers" they say. Not drivers.

---

Drivers will just take care of themselves. If the self-driving cab really does take off, no one will be trying to book a ride with an Uber driver. Their income will plummet, so they'll find something else to do.

---

Little story of my last Uber... About 3 weeks before I was laid off, but that's a different story.

Flew into IAH and needed to get back home in Spring. Trips like these I usually Uber as they were somewhat open-ended. Driver lived in the Richmond/Rosenberg area and was a bit jaded that the app sent him a ride to Spring as it was not on his way home, but it did get him out of the airport. Further... Due to weather the airport was a mess and was in surge pricing. The ride was going to cost me just at $100, he said he was getting about $25 of that.

Once we were in my neighborhood, and within a mile or so of my house the app was sending him rides. Again, as far as I knew based on what he had said, he was trying to get home. My understanding it links with rides that start generally getting you in that direction. The rides it was sending him were all extremely short. Like pickup was 2 miles away and the ride was less than 3 miles total. He said he'd make maybe $5 on a ride like that and might get a tip but likely not. The problem was that for a $5 fare (his share) would still require upwards of 15 minutes. He said it just wasn't worth it.

Those are absolutely the rides these autonomous units can excel at. They can linger & loiter somewhere until dispatched, and range permitting the length of the ride is no issue.

Edit to add... While Uber got started when I lived in a small town market they didn't serve, I too thought it was as they called it "ride share" vs just taxi under a different name. So to the poster that said that's what they were, you're not the only one that thought that.

techno-ag said:

---

"To reduce management layers" they say. Not drivers.

---

Drivers aren't employees. Contractors don't count.

Or did that change to make them employees at some point? Do they even get a guaranteed minimum? If not, then there's no reason to cut them, as they literally cost nothing to retain. Their fare numbers will go down and they'll self cull when they realize that they get a fraction of the rides they did before, making it not worth it. Or just cut hours of individual availability.

I could be wrong about the structure though.

And I'm sure uber eats fees will double to make up for it…

BMX Bandit said:

---

Quote:

---

The original model was to get people together who were going the same direction.

---

Uber was originally all black towncars. So I don't think your statement is accurate. It was meant to be a competitor to taxis from the beginning.

---

It is not accurate. And if I'm not mistaken, Lyft was first. I remember seeing the stupid mustaches in SF way before I heard the name uber. They were always ride share, aka taxis in everything but name.

Kaiser von Wilhelm said:

---

BMX Bandit said:

---

Quote:

---

The original model was to get people together who were going the same direction.

---

Uber was originally all black towncars. So I don't think your statement is accurate. It was meant to be a competitor to taxis from the beginning.

---

It is not accurate. And if I'm not mistaken, Lyft was first. I remember seeing the stupid mustaches in SF way before I heard the name uber. They were always ride share, aka taxis in everything but name.

---

When they came into Houston, they sold themselves as a "jitney cab" service to get around the taxi regulations. Jitney cabs tend to go from point a to point b picking up people and dropping them off along the way. That is never how it actually worked out, but it got them in the door and got enough people using them that it forced the hand of city council when they started trying to shut them down. Along the way it highlighted the level of monopoly that the city was granting Yellow Cab and how much Yellow Cab was kicking back to local politicians.

Kaiser von Wilhelm said:

---

And I'm sure uber eats fees will double to make up for it…

---

DoorDash, UberEats, Amazon are all going mass market with drone delivery in the next 6 months. Food delivery fees are going to fall off a cliff.

you can’t be serious pic.twitter.com/kSLmjJdXs7

— hope hopes hoping (@hopes_revenge) September 2, 2026

Tesla has lost its way. It originally successful because they made cars people actually wanted to own. The Cyber Cab looks even worse than the Cyber Truck. Get back to making decent looking cars.

AustinAg2K said:

---

Tesla has lost its way. It originally successful because they made cars people actually wanted to own. The Cyber Cab looks even worse than the Cyber Truck. Get back to making decent looking cars.

---

The cyber cab wasn't designed for people that wanted to own a sharp looking car. It was designed to be purchased by companies to use as a driverless taxi cab where styling isn't as important. When you hail a cab do you care if it looks cool?

bonfarr said:

---

AustinAg2K said:

---

Tesla has lost its way. It originally successful because they made cars people actually wanted to own. The Cyber Cab looks even worse than the Cyber Truck. Get back to making decent looking cars.

---

The cyber cab wasn't designed for people that wanted to own a sharp looking car. It was designed to be purchased by companies to use as a driverless taxi cab where styling isn't as important. When you hail a cab do you care if it looks cool?

---

Hailing a driverless cab sounds… challenging. Just sayin,

"I hate the way a yellow cab looks."

Taxi Cab Co's are not in the business of transportation. They're in the car business. Selling the cars to contract drivers. And Remember Michael Cohen? Owned several NYC Medallions. Cab business is seedy to say the least. W/ every pol out there w/ a hand out, it's no wonder Uber/Lyft were able to get approval.

Remember Cali trying to pass the gig worker bill that required them to become employees? Uber/Lyft threatened to leave the state. I'm sure it required some palm greasing.

Another thing. If we can demand CDL English proficiency, we can damn sure can demand it for Uber/Lyft.

pic.twitter.com/37uaPmYBvg

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 3, 2026

another aspect of having no driver...

That's why Robotaxi matters.

Uber's own US Safety Report: 2,717 sexual assault reports in 20212022
12,522 serious sexual assaults disclosed across 20172022 (Uber's three public reports)
Court records via NYT, Aug 2025: 400,181 sexual assault or misconduct reports on US Uber trips 20172022 about one every 8 minutes
Uber says ~75% of that 400k were "less serious" (comments, flirting). The rest is still a stranger in a locked car
A Cybercab has no human driver in the car

A 5-star stranger is still a stranger.
No driver is the game changer.

That's why Robotaxi matters.

Why Robotaxi

THE DRIVER IS THE RISK.
ROBOTAXI REMOVES THE STRANGER.

Most people still think a 5-star rideshare is safe because the app rated the person.

That’s only half the story.

Elon:

“You'll be able to tell your car take me home, go here, go there, anything, & it'll just… https://t.co/2cGLGtffwU pic.twitter.com/aUthaCX3eu

— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) September 2, 2026