The ride-hailing model Uber built depends on human drivers, and autonomous vehicles threaten to cut them out entirely. The company has allied with driver unions in a push to slow robotaxi deployment, a stance Uber itself characterized as potentially ironic given its long record of clashes with drivers.
The acknowledgment carries weight on its own. For years, Uber's posture toward organized labor was adversarial. Now the company coordinates with unions it once opposed, drawn together by a shared interest in slowing autonomous vehicle expansion into ride-hailing.
A mature robotaxi market removes the independent contractor layer from the platform entirely. On that specific pressure, the business interests of a human-driver platform and its unions point in the same direction.