In 2020, Uber was standing at the crossroads. The company was betting on a robot taxi expensive, but the project was full of legal issues and cash burning. So Uber gave it to another startup.
However, five years later, the future of Uber seems to be linked to an autonomous vehicle as before. The company is currently betting on accepting driverless taxis without spending money.
In recent months, Uber has doubled what is called a “platform strategy” and has been working with robot taxi companies like Waymo. In Phoenix, riders can order Waymo cars through the Uber app, and in Austin, Texas, Waymo robot taxis will immediately wear a Uber logo. Giant riding giants include 15 autonomous car partnerships, from Waymo to international companies such as Weride and autonomous food delivery services such as AVRIDE.
However, these partners are also competitors. In December, when Waymo was expanding to Miami without a Uber partnership, Uber's shares fell 9 %. And the expansion of Waymo is not the end. Last month, the company announced that it would test vehicles in 10 new cities this year.
Last week, Tesla's highest executive officer, ELON MUSK, said in June that he had an autonomous driving taxi on the Austin road. He has been making similar predictions for many years about the time when Tesla's vehicles can drive themselves, but it is time for the industry's insider to do good things in his promise. It is a problem.
For Uber, the problem is whether it will take a driverless taxi expansion or turn it over. “Nobody is convinced who will be the winning technology,” said TOM WHITE, a senior research analyst at the financial company Da Davidson. “So everyone is approaching potential enemies.”
On Wednesday morning, Uber said in the latest quarter that the total reservation, which is an important scale of the company, has increased by 18 % from the previous year and it was higher than that Wall Street investors expected. Uber's revenue increased by 20 % to $ 12 billion, higher than Wall Street expectations. Thanks to the $ 7 billion tax benefit, Uber has raised expectations for net income.
Analysts on Wall Street were hoped to ask Uber executives about their relationship with robot taxi companies at a telephone conference on Wednesday.
In the 2010s, the hype of self -driving cars was “perhaps before technology,” said Andrew Macdonald, Uber's senior vice president. “Now it's starting to turn over.”
It is difficult to determine whether Waymo has reduced Uber's business, including cities like San Francisco. (Dara Khosrowshahi, the highest executive officer of Uber, states that robot taxi has not influenced Uber's demand.)
Uber's top rival Lyft has adopted a similar approach to Robot Taxis, has released three autonomous partnerships since November, and has released more works.
The value of a robot taxi from Uber and Lyft is clear. Human labor is one of the biggest costs. In addition, companies assume the future of people purchasing robot taxis and used as personal vehicles, and if they can borrow them in a passenger car network in a few hours, Jeremy Bird, a Lyft driver experience head. I mentioned.
But for now, robot taxi is more expensive than higher profitability, and requires a huge amount of capital to develop. After the Cruise owner, General Motors, resigned from the robot taxi competition in December, corporate clubs provide funds to self -government races. 。
In Phoenix, riders can order Waymo via the Uber app. This is an arrangement that will soon appear in Atlanta and Austin. In these two cities, Uber also provides fleet management services such as cleaning and charging. According to analyst estimates, the company has obtained a part of the revenue from each ride from 10-20 %. (McDonald's refused to provide the financial details of partnerships, but said it would evolve over time.)
Increasing vehicles in the Uber and Lyft app also reduce waiting and reduce rider costs. The two companies have already operated the fleet management business, so it is convenient to take over these services for partners like Waymo, and Macdonald and Bird said.
For consumers, taking a robot taxi on an app like Uber or Lyft is a draw. “That's the biggest advantage for us,” said Bird. “It only diversifies the types of options that the rider holds on the platform.”
However, the value of Waymo's Uber partnership is not very clear in cities like San Francisco, and demand for Waymos has already exceeded supply.
Fenix's lawyer, Melissa Covalvias, is currently using Wamo as a riding option, and after negative experience of Uber and Life driver, it feels safer and more comfortable.
“And Waymo's interior is very wonderful, luxurious, and you can choose your own music,” she added.
Sean Campbell, a Phoenix lawyer, said Waymo was choosing his ride in about 35 % of his time going to work. However, he uses Lyft to participate in events such as sports games and concerts that need to navigate a large crowd.
“However, I always take Wakeo to go out at night,” said Campbell. “THE BEYOND THE TECHNOLOGY: That's just fun.”
Before Waymo was spin -off, the relationship with Uber with Google was a turbulent began. In 2016, Google's top engineer Anthony Levandowski left the company and later became Uber's executive. In 2020, he was convicted of stealing Google's corporate secrets in other legal disputes between the two companies.
However, KHOSROWSHAHI, who took over in 2017 as the highest executive officer of Uber, has repaired his relationship. In 2020, he handed over Uber's autonomous research department to a startup aurora, and Uber invested $ 400 million.
“I had to settle with them first and settle in court,” said Khosrowshahi to the New York Times in a recent podcast. He added, “We have built a relationship for a certain period of time.”
In response to questions about partnerships with Uber, Waymo's Spokesman has provided a blog post from a company to announce the expansion to Atlanta and Austin.
Uber's revenue call has become a regular forum for analysts to pepper KhosRowshahi, in question about his autonomous strategy. Most analysts believe that the company is on a promising orbit with a partnership, but the robot taxi offers a large “Uber risk or opportunity”, Bernstein analyst Nikhil Devnani. I said. “I think the market is still trying to grasp what results will be.”
