Investor Gary Black, managing director of The Future Fund LLC, thinks that Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE:UBER) could be poised to lead the Robotaxi sector ahead of Elon Musk-led Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Alphabet Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Waymo.
Operational Leverage
In a post on X on Wednesday, Black quoted a post by user @KevinMac291, which claimed that Robotaxi companies would ditch the Uber platform as soon as they achieved autonomy, saying that it was “just an app.”
The investor outlined how this was a “misconception” about Uber, saying that it was a “ride-hailing platform with 200 million monthly active platform customers,” as well as “10 million active vehicles” in its fleet and that the app connects that userbase with the fleet.
By contrast, Waymo “has 3,000 robotaxi vehicles on its platform,” which was far fewer than Uber’s. Black then said that once Uber begins offering unsupervised autonomous rides on its platform globally with “2-3 minute wait times,” while being comparable to Waymo on costs, “there will be no reason to take a Waymo.”
He then slammed Tesla’s bullish supporters for dismissing the company as just being an “app,” saying that they did not understand the “concepts of brand and operational leverage.”
Tesla, Waymo In The Robotaxi Race
The robotaxi race in the U.S. currently comprises Waymo, Tesla, as well as Amazon.com Inc.-backed (NASDAQ:AMZN) Zoox. Waymo is firmly in the lead with operations across 10 cities in the U.S., as well as planned global expansions in London and Tokyo. It also recently reached the 500,000 rides per week milestone.
Tesla, meanwhile, has had to grapple with challenges in its Robotaxi rollout. The company currently offers Unsupervised Robotaxi rides in Austin, Houston and Dallas, as well as offering supervised Robotaxi rides in California. Tesla also ramped up production of its Cybercab, which could hand its Robotaxi efforts a major boost.
Uber’s Bullish Self-Driving Sentiments
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi expressed bullish sentiments toward the self-driving sector, sharing that the industry represented a “trillion-dollar” total addressable market (TAM). Khosrowshahi also outlined Uber’s partnerships in the sector with companies like Nuro Inc. and NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA).
Uber also expanded its investment in Tesla rival Lucid Group Inc. (NASDAQ:LCID), expanding its planned fleet of 20,000 Lucid Robotaxis to 35,000. Lucid’s Gravity Robotaxi with Nuro software recently acquired an approval to begin driverless testing in California.
According to Benzinga Edge Rankings, Uber offers poor Momentum, but excellent Growth. It also fails to provide a favorable price trend in the Short, Medium and Long term.
Price Action: Uber shares surged by 9.17% during premarket trading on Thursday, currently trading at $79.64.
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