The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

Uber CEO: At Uber, If You Don’t Perform, You’re Out! Uber Was Losing $3b A Year

1738 snips
Feb 23, 2026
Guest
Dara Khosrowshahi
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber and former Expedia leader known for company turnarounds. He recounts fleeing Iran and how it shaped his risk appetite. He explains the wartime leadership and high-performance culture that saved Uber. He explores AI’s massive job disruption, how engineers use AI today, and realistic timelines and implications for autonomous vehicles and driver futures.
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Push Teams To Take Smart Risks

  • Encourage teams to take smart, offensive risks rather than only defending cashflows.
  • Set examples by sometimes making bold decisions and moving on from failures.

Wiring Taxis Was Once Considered Idiotic

  • Uber once built taxi integration despite founders saying it was a terrible idea.
  • That taxi product became one of the company's fastest-growing business segments.

Applied AI Powers Real-World Orchestration

  • Uber's core orchestration systems run on many small AI models trained for local problems.
  • Applied AI stitches those parts together to manage millions of daily trips across varied cities.
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