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Uber wants to cut costs by shifting its engineering to India

businessinsider.in

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Re: Uber wants to cut costs by shifting its engineering to India

#11

Post by ageofwant »

foepys wrote: post #6

How does the SV crowd here see this? Considering that even entry web devs with only bootcamp experience often enough make >$100,000, outsourcing to India is a good idea, economically speaking. Could a successful outsourcing project by Uber threaten all SV tech jobs?

Indians are not stupid. They understand market dynamics as well as anyone. At best you will get a 5% markdown, and instant flight once a 4% markdown opportunity comes up. This is not enough to cover for the many downsides to outsourcing.

Re: Uber wants to cut costs by shifting its engineering to India

#12

Post by BurningFrog »

foepys wrote: post #6

How does the SV crowd here see this? Considering that even entry web devs with only bootcamp experience often enough make >$100,000, outsourcing to India is a good idea, economically speaking. Could a successful outsourcing project by Uber threaten all SV tech jobs?

Good for India if it works out, I guess.

But it feels - to my uninformed biased mind - like more of Uber flailing around while slowly failing.

> Could a successful outsourcing project by Uber threaten all SV tech jobs?

No.

It could be part of some downward pressure at worst.

Outsourcing to India has gone on for 2-3 decades. It's not some new disruptive thing.

Re: Uber wants to cut costs by shifting its engineering to India

#13

Post by wolco »

foepys wrote: post #6

How does the SV crowd here see this? Considering that even entry web devs with only bootcamp experience often enough make >$100,000, outsourcing to India is a good idea, economically speaking. Could a successful outsourcing project by Uber threaten all SV tech jobs?

Uber is on top of a death spiral with covid, the kill lift strategy by being unprofitable not working, softbank...

From the engineering point of view Uber is done. The self driving automation is probably not possible in the next x years. It has a working successful product probably too many developers now working on non-core projects.

Moving it to India they can keep the same numbers employed reduce costs and probably throw away things created there anyways.

My guess is a key lean operations team will remain in sf. Ensuring the system runs and is updated. Self driving research can be done India.. UI screens will be local.

Re: Uber wants to cut costs by shifting its engineering to India

#15

Post by ryanbrunner »

breitling wrote: post #2

Shift innovation to India? Have they seen India's track record on tech innovation? The education system there does not produce very innovative people or engineers. However they are great at following exact instructions so I'm sure that part of engineering team will do well

I wonder how much of this is the engineers themselves (and their training), and how much is due to how the industry was built and continues to function in India. Traditionally, innovation and creativity wasn't a positive thing for the type of work that was outsourced there, and I'd imagine there's a good deal of momentum that has created a culture of valuing accuracy to spec and timeliness over creativity and innovation within companies.

I certainly don't see a lack of creativity or innovation from immigrants from South Asia working in North America.

Re: Uber wants to cut costs by shifting its engineering to India

#16

Post by senthil_rajasek »

breitling wrote: post #2

Shift innovation to India? Have they seen India's track record on tech innovation? The education system there does not produce very innovative people or engineers. However they are great at following exact instructions so I'm sure that part of engineering team will do well

Every country had to start somewhere. This could be their start.

Re: Uber wants to cut costs by shifting its engineering to India

#17

Post by searchableguy »

iamstupidsimple wrote: post #4
breitling wrote: post #2

Shift innovation to India? Have they seen India's track record on tech innovation? The education system there does not produce very innovative people or engineers. However they are great at following exact instructions so I'm sure that part of engineering team will do well

They produce plenty of competent engineers, but my layman's interpretation is the problem of capital being concentrated in Silicon Valley, so there's little chance for tech entrepreneurs to flourish within India itself.

Yeah, that's correct. Most people are poor and afraid to venture into unknown territories. The consumer market isn't so receptive either for this reason. Coaching institutes and education centers are touted or seen as a path to wealth but they are just sad factories with tens or hundreds of students in one class.

Re: Uber wants to cut costs by shifting its engineering to India

#18

Post by Arfiraaa »

katbyte wrote: post #8
foepys wrote: post #6

How does the SV crowd here see this? Considering that even entry web devs with only bootcamp experience often enough make >$100,000, outsourcing to India is a good idea, economically speaking. Could a successful outsourcing project by Uber threaten all SV tech jobs?

No. To get the same amount of quality in india you’ll be paying roughly the same - and then have cultural and timezone barriers.

I don't think it's fair to assume the quality of Indian workers is worse. They are paid less purely because of cost of living and locational differences. Uber is smart enough to know this and it's the exact reason they will end up paying less for similar quality.

Also, in every company there are jobs that are trivial and jobs that require talent. I assume the more trivial jobs like bug fixing will be outsourced, while the rest of the engineers are kept for product design.

Re: Uber wants to cut costs by shifting its engineering to India

#20

Post by bluedevil2k »

ravenstine wrote: post #14

Wouldn't it only be fair for us to be handing more jobs to those with greater need in countries like India? Share the wealth, right?

Fair to whom? The investors who are now taking on a greater project risk? The SV developers who would be losing out on jobs?
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