diff --git a/src/expand/expand.rs b/src/expand/expand.rs
index 6b358e90c..7430aa1ea 100644
--- a/src/expand/expand.rs
+++ b/src/expand/expand.rs
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ fn expand(options: Options) {
 
             while byte < buf.len() {
                 let (ctype, cwidth, nbytes) = if options.uflag {
-                    let nbytes = uucore::utf8::utf8_char_width(buf[byte]);
+                    let nbytes = char::from(buf[byte]).len_utf8();
 
                     if byte + nbytes > buf.len() {
                         // don't overrun buffer because of invalid UTF-8
diff --git a/src/unexpand/Cargo.toml b/src/unexpand/Cargo.toml
index b917a95de..cecad138a 100644
--- a/src/unexpand/Cargo.toml
+++ b/src/unexpand/Cargo.toml
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ unicode-width = "0.1.5"
 
 [dependencies.uucore]
 path = "../uucore"
-features = ["utf8"]
 
 [[bin]]
 name = "unexpand"
diff --git a/src/unexpand/unexpand.rs b/src/unexpand/unexpand.rs
index 30b7343ec..5df0dfda0 100644
--- a/src/unexpand/unexpand.rs
+++ b/src/unexpand/unexpand.rs
@@ -239,7 +239,7 @@ fn unexpand(options: Options) {
                 }
 
                 let (ctype, cwidth, nbytes) = if options.uflag {
-                    let nbytes = uucore::utf8::utf8_char_width(buf[byte]);
+                    let nbytes = char::from(buf[byte]).len_utf8();
 
                     // figure out how big the next char is, if it's UTF-8
                     if byte + nbytes > buf.len() {
diff --git a/src/uucore/lib.rs b/src/uucore/lib.rs
index bfa111564..e391d6975 100644
--- a/src/uucore/lib.rs
+++ b/src/uucore/lib.rs
@@ -18,8 +18,6 @@ pub mod panic;
 
 #[cfg(feature = "fs")]
 pub mod fs;
-#[cfg(feature = "utf8")]
-pub mod utf8;
 #[cfg(feature = "encoding")]
 pub mod encoding;
 #[cfg(feature = "parse_time")]
diff --git a/src/uucore/utf8.rs b/src/uucore/utf8.rs
deleted file mode 100644
index f2d2137a2..000000000
--- a/src/uucore/utf8.rs
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,27 +0,0 @@
-/* This is taken from the rust_unicode crate. Remove once 'unicode' becomes stable */
-
-// https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3629
-static UTF8_CHAR_WIDTH: [u8; 256] = [
-1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,
-1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1, // 0x1F
-1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,
-1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1, // 0x3F
-1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,
-1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1, // 0x5F
-1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,
-1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1, // 0x7F
-0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,
-0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0, // 0x9F
-0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,
-0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0, // 0xBF
-0,0,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,
-2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2, // 0xDF
-3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3, // 0xEF
-4,4,4,4,4,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0, // 0xFF
-];
-
-/// Given a first byte, determine how many bytes are in this UTF-8 character
-#[inline]
-pub fn utf8_char_width(b: u8) -> usize {
-    return UTF8_CHAR_WIDTH[b as usize] as usize;
-}