Uber’s chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, drew a backlash on Sunday after calling the murder of Jamal Khashoggi a “mistake” by the Saudi government and comparing the killing to the accidental death of a woman hit by a self-driving car, remarks that he quickly walked back.

“It’s a serious mistake,” Mr. Khosrowshahi said in the interview with Axios on HBO, which aired on Sunday, after he was asked about the brutal killing last year by Saudi operatives of Mr. Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist. “We’ve made mistakes too, right, with self driving, and we stopped driving, and we’re recovering from that mistake. So I think that people make mistakes.”

Mr. Khosrowshahi retreated from his comments last week — shortly after the interview was filmed, but days before it aired — first in a phone call and then in an emailed statement.

“I said something in the moment that I do not believe,” he said in an email to Axios on Thursday. “When it comes to Jamal Khashoggi, his murder was reprehensible and should not be forgotten or excused.”