Uber Technologies Inc.’s (NYSE:UBER) partnership with Alphabet Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Waymo could reportedly hit a sour note as executives from the ride-hailing giant have criticized the latter’s expansion.
Waymo’s Expansion, Scary San Francisco Moment
Uber executives have painted AV-only operators like Waymo as less scalable and less reliable than a hybrid approach, with human drivers and Robotaxis being offered on ride-hailing platforms, Business Insider reported on Thursday.
Uber’s Chief Technology Officer, Praveen Neppalli, also shared a video in April on the social media platform X, showing a Waymo vehicle overtaking a bus in the wrong lane and trying to squeeze between his vehicle and the bus. “Big fan of AVs, but perception ≠ judgment. Edge cases matter!” he said in the post.
The report also shared a statement from February by Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s CEO, who said that AVs were progressing rapidly and held “enormous potential,” but also said that AVs were “far from capable of meeting the level of reliability” that customers expected.
Uber is also looking at AVs deploying in wealthy neighborhoods, but failing to deploy in cities like Oakland, where it has permission, the report said, citing a white paper released by Axios last week. Uber has called for equitable distribution across markets, the report said.
Uber’s Robotaxi Bet
Uber has been expanding aggressively in the Robotaxi sector, announcing partnerships with various operators besides Waymo throughout the globe. Uber also outlined its commitment to invest $10 billion towards bolstering its Robotaxi chops via equity investments and fleet expansions.
Khosrowshahi also called the AV sector a “trillion-dollar” total addressable market (TAM), reaffirming bullish sentiments on self-driving vehicles. While Waymo is Uber’s sole partner in the U.S. robotaxi space, Khosrowshahi has also expressed optimism about incorporating Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) vehicles on its platform once the technology advances.
According to Benzinga Edge Rankings, Uber scores well on the Growth metric and offers satisfactory Value. It also provides a favorable price trend in the Short term.
Price Action: Uber Technologies shares were down 0.62% at $74.24 during premarket trading on Friday.
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