Uber is reversing its asset-light "gig economy" model by committing over $10 billion to robotaxis. This investment includes more than $2.5 billion in equity stakes in autonomous vehicle (AV) developers and over $7.5 billion for robotaxi fleets, contingent on partners meeting deployment milestones. This strategic shift aims to prevent disruption from robotaxis and position Uber as the primary platform for AV providers, with plans to launch services in at least 15 cities by 2026, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Dubai, and Munich.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi stated that the company is putting up capital to guarantee robotaxi supply with profitable economics. Uber expects institutional investors and fleet management companies to help finance the broader deployment of tens of thousands of robotaxis. The ride-hailing app has aggressively pursued partnerships with over a dozen providers, including Baidu, Rivian, Lucid, and Amazon's Zoox, and aims to become the world's largest provider of autonomous vehicle trips by 2029.
This commitment follows Uber's sale of its in-house autonomous vehicle arm in 2020 for $4 billion, a move made to focus on profitability. The company's shares have been down almost 23% in the past six months, partly due to investor concerns that AV providers like Alphabet's Waymo, Tesla, and Amazon's Zoox could bypass Uber's platform. Uber's take rate, the margin it earns on each ride, has increased from approximately 23% in late 2020 to 30% by the end of last year, although it has not disclosed the take rate for autonomous trips.
