--- title: "Uber Drivers Say They’re Doomed in the Face of Robotaxis" description: "Uber drivers are anxiously awaiting a future in which robotaxis could make their jobs obsolete, as The Register reports." date: "2024-09-10" modified: "2024-09-10" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/uber-drivers-doomed-robotaxis" categories: - "Advanced Transport" tags: - "Autonomous Cars" - "robotaxis" - "the digest" - "waymo" --- # Uber Drivers Say They’re Doomed in the Face of Robotaxis ![Uber drivers are anxiously awaiting a future in which robotaxis could make their jobs obsolete, as The Register reports.]() *\Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/Futurism\* ## Time's Up Uber drivers are anxiously awaiting a future in which autonomous ride-hailing vehicles could make their jobs obsolete. As [*The Register* reports](), some drivers are already fearing the worst. "To put it bluntly, we are cooked," one person posted in an Uber forum dug up by the newspaper. "We're done for. In the age of artificial intelligence and automation, we're the first to be impacted in a major way." Self-driving taxi outfits, most notably Google-owned Waymo, have steadily grown their fleets of autonomous vehicles. According to its most recently published figures, the company is [giving over 100,000 paid rides]() a week in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. Worse yet, the company's luxurious vehicles are making it hard for human Uber drivers to compete. "If you're riding around in an Uber X, you're in an old Prius, or maybe a Tesla," one driver told *The Register*. "It's super nice leather, cushy seats, great suspension, big tires. Uber is not going to be able to do anything once Waymo starts under-pricing them." ## Undercut If tech companies can build truly safe and reliable robotaxis, it will unquestionably pose a threat to the millions of taxi and rideshare drivers in the United States and worldwide. But exactly when robotaxis might start undercutting the need for human drivers remains an open question. Despite its aggressive marketing and over 100,000 weekly rides, Waymo is operating at a loss of around $2 billion in the first half of this year, as the [*New York Times* reported]() last week. That's not to mention nagging technical issues plaguing robotaxi services in busy cities. Case in point, General Motors massively cut spending on its autonomous vehicles division Cruise. The company was once a viable Waymo competitor, but thanks to a [disastrous year](), including an incident [involving a woman being struck and pinned down]() by one of its vehicles, it's a shadow of what it once was. In other words, even today's most impressive robotaxi ventures are basically elaborate tech demos. What the services will look like in reality is anyone's guess. "The Waymo cost of that whole vehicle, with all the spinning thing you see on top of the car, is about $300,000," former Uber chief business officer Emil Michael [told *CNBC*]() in June. "That's not going to replace a driver financially anytime soon." **More on self-driving vehicles:** [*Mercedes Exec Blasts Tesla for Reckless "Full Self-Driving" Rollout*]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()