SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Human rideshare drivers who work for Uber are being outworked by their robotic competitors. At least, that’s the word from Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
Uber recently began offering rides in Waymo autonomous taxis in Atlanta and Austin.
According to Khosrowshahi, the robotaxis are doing more trips than the human drivers.
“In both cases, the average Waymo is busier than 99% of our drivers in terms of completed trips per day,” the CEO said during Uber’s earnings call on Wednesday.
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While that may be good news for self-driving cars operating within the Uber app network, it could spell bad news for human rideshare drivers. Uber has been investing heavily into AVs, recently putting $300 million into autonomous vehicle maker Lucid as part of a deal that will see the rideshare company using Lucid’s Gravity EV as a robotaxi.
Waymo communications manager Julia Ilina stands next to a Waymo driverless taxi in San Francisco, on Feb. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Terry Chea, File)
Uber has also partnered with software manufacturer Nuro on developing autonomous taxis.
Addressing the Nuro and Lucid partnerships on Wednesday’s call, Khosrowshahi said Uber was, “a supply-led company.”
“The more drivers there are in the ecosystem that we can amalgamate with our platform, the better our service becomes, and that applies with robotic and autonomous drivers as well,” Khosrowshahi added.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, participates in a session during the APEC CEO Summit Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Speaking to Business Insider earlier this year, Khosrowshahi said he expected human drivers to coexist with autonomous vehicles and “operate in a hybrid network” for the next decade.
“Ten years from now, things may be different,” the CEO told BI in January.
