Uber is readying itself for the driverless age—again

“Always be hustlin’, ” was the credo of Travis Kalanick, co-founder and former boss of Uber. That mindset helped turn the company into the world’s largest ride-hailing platform, with operations in more than 70 countries and 10,000 cities. Its name has now become a commonly used verb. But while Uber hustled, investors had to be patient. Although founded 16 years ago, it first turned an annual operating profit only in 2023. Disrupting personal transport while fighting legal battles over flouted regulations and weathering sexual-harassment scandals proved tremendously costly.

Shareholders are at least reaping the rewards. After posting an operating profit of $2.8bn in 2024, Uber’s results for the second quarter of 2025, unveiled on August 6th, put it on course for an even better year. To the delight of investors, the company also announced that it would buy back $20bn-worth of shares. Yet most analysts on the earnings call with Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s current chief executive, were more concerned with what he had to say about a topic his predecessor, Mr Kalanick, once described as an “existential threat” to the company: driverless cars.

Mr Khosrowshahi concedes that the commercialisation of robotaxis is still in the “very, very early” stages. Perhaps 1,500 of them operate in America and around 2,000 in China, the two biggest markets, with a handful elsewhere in the world. But those numbers could surge; Goldman Sachs, a bank, reckons 35,000 may be on the road in America alone by 2030. Uber’s boss is clear that his company wants to be in the (vacant) driving seat.

During Mr Kalanick’s reign Uber began to develop self-driving technology in-house. It reportedly sank some $3bn into the project before deeming it too difficult and risky after one of its vehicles hit and killed a pedestrian, in what was the first death caused by a self-driving car. It sold the unit in 2020 to Aurora, a startup focused on autonomous lorries.

Now, as other companies begin to master the technology, Uber’s new strategy is to make deals with as many of them as possible. It offers them an immediate way to access passengers at scale by allowing customers to book robotaxi rides through the Uber app. Its partners so far include Volkswagen, a carmaker that will start offering a robotaxi service in Los Angeles next year; WeRide, a Chinese startup that will collaborate with Uber in 15 cities worldwide over the next five years; and Apollo Go, the autonomous-vehicle (av) arm of Baidu, a Chinese tech giant, which offers trips in Asia and the Middle East and hopes to do so in Europe.

Uber has also been putting capital to work. Last year it invested an undisclosed sum in Wayve, a British av startup, and in June announced that together they would begin trialling robotaxi rides in London next year. Reports have also emerged that Uber may help Mr Kalanick finance a deal to buy the American operations of Pony.ai, another Chinese av firm with which it already has a deal to deploy robotaxis in the Middle East.

To get a better understanding of a business that may be critical to its future, Uber, supposedly an “asset-light” company, is also purchasing self-driving cars of its own. In July it signed a deal with Lucid, an electric-vehicle maker, and Nuro, one more av startup, to supply the ride-hailing company with 20,000 robotaxis over the next six years, in an effort to “prove out the economics” of operating such fleets, in the words of Mr Khosrowshahi.

Uber’s relationship with Waymo, the self-driving unit of Alphabet, may prove the most consequential. Waymo, which operates in five cities and has a dozen more in its sights, is the clear robotaxi leader in America. Rides can be booked on its own app, but also on Uber’s in Atlanta and Austin. Uber hopes the partnership will grow, but Alphabet may conclude that Waymo has enough name recognition to go it alone. As it expands its services across America and beyond, it may start to pose a problem for Uber.

The wildcard in all this is Elon Musk. The serial entrepreneur improbably claims that the robotaxis developed by Tesla, his carmaker, which have so far been deployed in only one small pilot in Austin, will be available to half the American population by the end of the year. Many analysts doubt the robustness of Tesla’s self-driving technology, and Mr Musk’s expectation that owners of the company’s cars will put them to work as robotaxis. Still, Mr Musk has defied his doubters plenty of times before. Mr Khosrowshahi also wants Tesla on Uber’s platform, but thinks that Mr Musk will go it alone.

The road to widespread adoption of robotaxis may yet be a long one. Getting the technology and business model right is only part of the challenge. Regulators in many countries still have reservations. Consumers, too, will need to be convinced. Nonetheless, Uber will keep hustling to ensure it is the platform of choice when the robotaxi future eventually arrives. ■