Uber pitches itself as robotaxi platform as Waymo walks away

CEO Dara Khosrowshahi claimed Uber's app delivers around 30 percent more trips per vehicle per day than apps run by autonomous cab companies, and said that higher utilisation, plus shared charging and maintenance infrastructure, can produce higher fleet profitability even after paying Uber's marketplace fee. He argued that the ability to commercialise vehicles profitably will become an increasingly important competitive advantage as autonomous technology spreads.

Uber also outlined its own robotaxi plans: roughly 2,000 robo-cabs on the road in 2027, followed by what Khosrowshahi called a much larger commercial ramp beginning in 2028. Uber will run some cars itself while relying on third-party operators, though it says it will concentrate resources on a smaller group of partners with the clearest paths to commercial scale.

The timing is awkward. Uber's pitch about hosting third-party players landed the same day Waymo, owned by Google, walked away from exactly such an arrangement. The Register also notes the irony that Uber is making the same kind of scale argument Google uses for search and its app store, while both companies hold dominant positions in their markets.

Uber's quarter was strong: $59.8 billion in bookings, up 20 percent year over year, with $14.75 billion recognised as revenue. But Australia's High Court separately ruled that Uber must pay AU$81 million (about $57 million) in state payroll taxes, because fees paid to rideshare drivers are effectively wages. As Australia's highest court, its reasoning could influence similar gig-worker cases elsewhere.