Uber is cutting jobs, DoorDash gets drones and Waymo exits its partnership. LegalRideshare breaks it down.
UBER CUTTING 10% CUSTOMER SERVICE
Uber is cutting 10% of its customer service. Bloomberg reported:
The company announced the cuts within the community operations team on Wednesday, saying it’s working “to simplify operations, strengthen in-person collaboration, and continue to embrace AI,” an Uber spokesperson said by email. Employees who’d been working remotely for the team were also asked to relocate to a hub office, consistent with the company’s return-to-office mandate, the spokesperson said.
“Our organization has become too complex and siloed,” Megha Yethadka, Uber’s vice president of global community operations, said in an memo to her division on Wednesday. The department “has made some strides” in using AI, she said, “but to unlock this potential, we need an effective organization to layer AI on. We cannot scale frontier technology on top of fragmented processes.”
The company said in May that it would slow hiring due to the internal use of AI, but it’s still recruiting for more than 500 roles on its jobs page, including for engineers to support robotaxi partnerships.
DOORDASH GETS DRONES
DoorDash is clear for takeoff. Washington Post reported:
DoorDash was approved on Wednesday to commercially operate a drone delivery service. The drones, developed in-house, will help serve “more customers and solve the hardest problems on the ground for local businesses,” according to a statement from the company.
Earning the Part 135 air carrier certification from the Federal Aviation Administration is no small feat. It requires operators to pass a five-stage evaluation process to verify an aircraft’s “airworthiness,” maintenance programs and safety procedures. DoorDash is just the eighth drone operator to earn the certificate.
In 2025 pilot projects, DoorDash said in a statement, the drones could deliver in an average of 25 minutes. Participating locations even saw order volumes increase by 30 percent.
WAYMO EXITS UBER PARTNERSHIP
Waymo is cutting ties with Uber. Bloomberg reported:
Waymo is exploring options to exit its robotaxi partnership with Uber Technologies Inc., the latest relationship twist between two companies that have functioned as both rivals and partners.
Uber currently offers rides in autonomous Waymo vehicles on its platform exclusively in two US cities — Austin and Atlanta — after ending a more limited partnership in Phoenix last month. An Uber spokesperson said that Waymo has given notice that it plans to launch service through its own app in those cities in January 2028 “alongside their existing deployment with Uber.” This “would end Waymo’s exclusivity in Austin and Atlanta and allow us to launch with other AV providers in those cities, which we will be prepared to do,” the spokesperson added.
The current fleet of Waymo vehicles will remain on Uber’s platform through at least May 2028, the duration of the current contract, Uber said. The Financial Times reported earlier that Waymo was exploring options for exiting the partnership.
“We believe in a vibrant and collaborative AV ecosystem that champions innovation and provides riders with a choice in how they experience this technology,” said a Waymo spokesperson. “This is essential to the industry’s future and to our vision of making the Waymo app and the safety of our technology available to riders everywhere.”
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