Uber Eats has agreed to pay a total of $3.5 million following a New York City investigation into delivery-worker compensation. Of that amount, $3.15 million will be distributed as direct restitution to approximately 48,000 couriers who were allegedly underpaid over the past three years, an average of $65 per worker. An additional $350,000 will cover civil penalties and administrative fees levied by the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs. The settlement resolves claims that the company failed to ensure a guaranteed minimum pay floor for certain deliveries, potentially improving its public standing but also highlighting continued regulatory pressure on gig-economy labor models.

As Uber prepares to release full fiscal year results next week, investors are focused on whether the margin contractions seen in the third quarter will persist or prove transitory. Analysts note that cost of incentives and driver-partner subsidies rose by 12% year-over-year in Q3, pressuring consolidated adjusted EBITDA. A key offset could come from progress on the company’s partnership with Nvidia for on-vehicle AI hardware, which management has indicated could reduce self-driving R&D expenses by up to $150 million annually once fully deployed. With net revenue growth cooling to 26% in Q3, market participants will be watching guidance for adjusted EBITDA margin improvement and any updates on AI-driven efficiencies.

Uber has committed up to $250 million to Waabi, a Canadian autonomous trucking startup led by former Uber AI chief Raquel Urtasun, contingent on deployment milestones. The upfront $750 million valuation round, including the Uber tranche, funds Waabi’s goal to deploy more than 25,000 robotaxis over time. Uber’s investment underscores its ‘bet-on-everything’ AV strategy, which now spans over 20 partnerships globally. While Waabi’s simulation-first approach aims to accelerate testing scenarios—claiming it can replicate millions of rare traffic events in virtual environments—the success of scaling deployments in dense urban settings remains unproven. Investors will assess whether these AV investments can translate to meaningful cost reductions or revenue gains over the next three to five years.