New York, January 30, 2026, 13:05 EST — Regular session
Shares of Uber Technologies, Inc. (UBER.N) dropped 2.2% to $79.88 on Friday after New York City announced that its Uber Eats unit agreed to pay roughly $3.5 million in restitution and penalties related to delivery worker pay.
According to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office, Uber Eats will shell out $3.15 million in restitution to over 48,000 workers, plus $350,000 in civil penalties and fees. The company will also reinstate up to 10,000 workers who were wrongfully deactivated.
The city’s probe, spanning December 2023 through September 2024, prompted a minimum pay rate increase to $22.13 starting April 1. 1
Uber’s payout may be modest, but it hits a nerve. Delivery worker regulations are emerging as a clear expense, and investors remain quick to factor in any hint of stricter enforcement or wider impact on other markets.
Uber is pushing hard to highlight the future of rides. The company has focused on robotaxis — driverless taxis — as a key long-term strategy to boost supply and cut costs, despite the timelines remaining uncertain.
Mercedes-Benz announced Thursday it is teaming up with Nvidia and Uber to develop a robotaxi ecosystem centered on the new S-Class sedan. The project uses Nvidia’s DRIVE AV software alongside Mercedes’ MB.OS operating system.
Jörg Burzer, Mercedes technology chief, described the partnerships as “our entry into the robotaxi market,” with the S-Class as the base. Nvidia said these vehicles will be accessible to riders via Uber’s mobility network. 2
Earlier this week, autonomous trucking startup Waabi announced a $750 million Series C funding round, with an additional $250 million on the table from Uber, contingent on hitting certain milestones. The two firms plan to roll out at least 25,000 Waabi-powered robotaxis via Uber’s platform.
Waabi’s founder and CEO, Raquel Urtasun, described their core technology as “a single solution” capable of operating across “multiple verticals … at scale.” 3
Uber’s decline came amid a wider selloff in growth names. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) slipped 0.7%, with the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) retreating 1.2%.
Lyft dropped 4.8%, and DoorDash lost 1.6%.
Waabi’s COO, Lior Ron, described Uber’s strength as the platform layer. “Uber has always been great in building marketplaces,” he told Business Insider.
But Business Insider pointed out that Alphabet’s Waymo is already running unsupervised rides, whereas Waabi hasn’t yet launched a fully driverless truck on commercial routes or shared a timeline for rolling out 25,000 robotaxis. 4
The downside is straightforward to outline. City enforcement could expand, pay floors might climb once more, and even minor per-trip adjustments quickly pile up at Uber’s scale.
Robotaxi agreements bring their own set of uncertainties. They require regulators, fleets, and significant capital along the way — and investors often penalize lengthy build-outs once the short-term figures get messy.
Uber’s next major event is its Q4 and full-year 2025 earnings call, scheduled for Feb. 4 at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Investors will be looking for updates on delivery costs and more concrete targets regarding the company’s autonomy partnerships. 5
