Uber: Eats and freight could improve robotaxi economics

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said deliveries could be key to making robotaxis work economically, suggesting Uber Eats and the company's freight business could provide work for self-driving vehicles during periods of low passenger demand. Uber is working with multiple companies, including Waymo, to make self-driving cars available through its app.

Khosrowshahi said robotaxis on Uber's network could shift between ride-hailing and delivery as demand changes, and noted other services such as DoorDash are experimenting with robotaxi deliveries. "Having delivery and freight as part of our logistics ecosystem gives us an opportunity to actually use these vehicles at a structurally higher utilization than anyone else," he said.

He identified downtime and safety as challenges for autonomous vehicles and pointed to recent accidents and regulatory probes. Uber is seeking to improve reliability by training AI with data from human drivers through a partnership with Nvidia and with a new unit called AV Labs.

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