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Uber spends a ton on side-projects that may one day bear fruit (driverless cars, trucking, etc) and stock-based compensation is a huge expense. I suspect their engineering expense for their core services is a small part of their losses.

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Uber confirmed the sale of their self-driving unit (Uber ATG) to Aurora [0] a few weeks ago, and not everyone was absorbed into the company as part of the sale. So they're definitely cutting down on these "side-projects" to focus on the core parts of their business now that they have an obligation to shareholders.

[0] https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/07/uber-sells-self-driving-un...

Self driving(that you can trust) always seamed a like a fantasy. Last time I heard they sold that business unit/project.

Wouldn't want to miss that boat if it comes though. I think we'll have level 5 self driving for at least all purpose built roads within the next few years. I can't reconcile what Tesla have already released with not having self driving go mainstream soon. I suspect self-driving will never have a eureka moment either and will just slowly creep into existence.

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