BONUS: Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Talks Robotaxis & Booking Outlook

Summary

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Bloomberg Tech – BONUS: Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Talks Robotaxis & Booking Outlook (August 5, 2026)

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Episode Overview

In this special Bloomberg Tech episode, host Ed Ludlow interviews Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. The conversation centers on Uber's latest financial outlook, the state of consumer demand, driver economics, and the evolving landscape of autonomous vehicle (AV) partnerships—particularly in the context of the burgeoning robotaxi market. Khosrowshahi provides updates on Uber’s growth and market strategy, addresses competitive dynamics in both traditional and AV ridesharing, and outlines how Uber is positioning itself in the future of mobility.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Uber's Financial Performance and Booking Outlook

• Healthy Growth Amid Market Turbulence:

  • Gross bookings increased 22% in the latest quarter, showing “very healthy and represented quarter on quarter acceleration.” (Dara Khosrowshahi, 01:49)
  • Uber is averaging over 300 million trips a week, with both mobility and delivery businesses performing strongly.

• Impact of Market Conditions:

  • The one pressure point is Brazil, where intense competition in the food delivery space resulted in a temporary slowdown for mobility.
  • “We actually don't engage in the food delivery space but there's a big war going on...that took away some of our two wheeler drivers from mobility to delivery.” (Dara Khosrowshahi, 01:49)
  • However, Khosrowshahi emphasizes this does not materially affect their broader outlook and expects to meet or “hopefully beat” forward guidance.

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2. Consumer & Driver Trends

• Consumer Resilience:

  • “All signs point to a healthy consumer. We don't see any signs whatsoever of a consumer slowdown.” (Dara Khosrowshahi, 03:18)
  • Khosrowshahi notes no indication of “trading down” behaviors like shifting to cheaper restaurants or reducing tips.

• Driver Earnings:

  • Over 10 million earners globally, with US driver earnings up 8% year-on-year.
  • “We think both sides of the K [in the K-shaped economy] continue to be very healthy.” (Dara Khosrowshahi, 03:18)

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3. Robotaxis and Autonomous Vehicle Partnerships

• Expansion Ambitions:

  • Uber is currently operating with AV partners in 7 cities, aiming to reach 15 by year’s end, with a longer-term target of 50.
  • Partnerships span the entire AV ecosystem: “We want every safe robot driver on our platform.” (Dara Khosrowshahi, 04:36)
  • Notable partners and milestones:
    • Zoox: NHTSA approval for their innovative robot vehicles; Uber integration expected “later this year actually in Las Vegas, and then we'll expand from there.” (06:16)
    • Wave: Approval to start London operations.
    • Nvidia: Release of Alpha Mayo 2, a physical AI model, strengthening AV capabilities.

• Approach to Partnerships:

  • Uber is avoiding over-reliance on any one AV company, with a “work with all ecosystem partners” philosophy.
  • Regarding Waymo: “Our philosophy has always been we don't want to be dependent on one partner...so that we're not dependent on any single player to keep driving and growing this ecosystem.” (Dara Khosrowshahi, 06:51)
  • Even as Waymo currently leads the U.S. robotaxi market, Khosrowshahi expects “multiple winners” to emerge, likening AV competition to that in foundational AI models.

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4. The Robotaxi Market: Competition and Commercialization

• No Single Winner:

  • “Waymo's in the lead now, just like OpenAI was in the lead. But there are going to be many, many players as part of this ecosystem.” (Dara Khosrowshahi, 07:59)
  • References to rapid shifts in AI leadership as an analogy for the robotaxi market’s fluidity.

• Uber’s Strategic Value:

  • Uber sees itself as the demand-aggregator: “We can bring more rides to those cars and monetize those vehicles in a way that no one else can.” (Dara Khosrowshahi, 07:59)

• Pricing and Adoption:

  • Khosrowshahi pushes back on the idea that robotaxis must be cheaper than traditional rideshares for adoption.
  • “What we're seeing is pricing is super strong and demand is super strong as well. So when you get the product in market, it sells.” (Dara Khosrowshahi, 09:16)
  • Notes that AV makes up less than 0.5% of overall Uber trips, acknowledging the “adoption is going to take time.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Brazil’s market dynamics:

  “There's a big war going on in food delivery and that took away some of our two wheeler drivers from mobility to delivery because they're getting paid a lot to engage in that war.”
  — Dara Khosrowshahi (01:49)

• On consumer health:

  “We don't see any signs whatsoever of a consumer slowdown. So the consumer remains strong.”
  — Dara Khosrowshahi (03:18)

• On AV partnerships:

  “We want every safe robot driver on our platform. And we're working with the entire ecosystem to accomplish that.”
  — Dara Khosrowshahi (04:36)

• On the competitive landscape for robotaxis:

  “There is going to be no single winner here. Waymo's in the lead now, just like OpenAI was in the lead. But there are going to be many, many players as part of this ecosystem.”
  — Dara Khosrowshahi (07:59)

• On robotaxi pricing and demand:

  “What we're seeing is pricing is is super strong and demand is super strong as well. So when you get the product in market, it sells.”
  — Dara Khosrowshahi (09:16)

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Important Timestamps

• [01:49] Dara explains Uber’s recent financial performance and the specifics of the Brazil market
• [03:18] Status update on consumer behavior and driver economics
• [04:36] Deep dive into Uber’s AV/robotaxi expansion strategy and partnerships
• [06:16] Timeline for Zoox robotaxis appearing on the Uber app
• [06:51] Uber’s diversification across AV partners and contract considerations with Waymo
• [07:59] Khosrowshahi’s assessment of robotaxi competition and future expectations
• [09:16] Discussion on robotaxi pricing and early adoption trends

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Final Takeaways

• Uber reports strong financials and sees no signs of consumer or driver weakness.
• The company is accelerating its AV/robotaxi rollouts through a multi-partner strategy and expects to integrate more AVs on the platform over time.
• Leadership in the robotaxi market is still up for grabs, and Uber is positioning itself as the prime commercializer, capable of aggregating demand for any AV on its platform.
• Early robotaxi adoption is steady, with demand robust even at current pricing.

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Transcript

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[Bloomberg Host]

Bloomberg audio Studios Podcasts Radio News let's take another look

[Bloomberg Tech Interviewer]

at shares of uber, down about 6%. I think that's on track for its biggest drop since November. The company said gross bookings for the current quarter are expected to be between $58.25 billion and 60.5 billion, but that figure includes rides and delivery bookings as well as driver and merchant earnings. Uber said it faces some international headwinds, particularly in Brazil and the next focus, Robotaxi CEO Dara Khosrow Shah. He's back with us here on Bloomberg Tech. You know the gross bookings outlook, like there's a number of stories within it. I'd also note like at the same time rider activity seems to be increasing. You know, help us understand those two data points.

[Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO]

Yeah, the gross bookings results that we had up 22% in the quarter were actually very healthy and represented quarter on quarter acceleration. Mobility business was stable at 20%. The delivery business actually accelerated quarter on quarter as well. So the business continues to grow at pretty extraordinary rates. At the scale we're doing over 300 million trips per week. It drove really strong profitability as well. The pressure that we talked about was really in Brazil which caused a trip slowdown for for the quarter and that was actually about competition in the food delivery space in Brazil. Actually we have a lot of mobility ridership that are two wheelers. We actually don't engage in the food delivery space but there's a big war going on in food delivery and that took away some of our two wheeler drivers from mobility to delivery because they're getting paid a lot to to engage in that war, it really has no effect on us whatsoever. So the guidance that we gave for forward gross bookings growth is very consistent with the guidance that we gave last quarter and hopefully we will meet and hopefully beat those kinds of expectations.

[Bloomberg Tech Interviewer]

Is there anything to discuss on both, like the health but behavior of the consumer that you're seeing going into the second half of this year?

[Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO]

All signs point to a healthy consumer. We look at both our mobility and delivery business in terms of the growth of those businesses. They continue to be healthy. We look at like other indications, are consumers trading down and eating at more affordable restaurants or are eaters leaving less tips? Eaters or, or riders leaving less tips? We don't see any signs whatsoever of a consumer slowdown. So the consumer remains strong. And then on the labor front, actually our driver earnings, We've got over 10 million now earners around the world that continues to be very healthy. And in the US for example, driver earnings are up 8% on a year, on year basis. So, you know, people talk about the K shaped economy, but we think both sides of the kids continue to be very healthy. And right now all signs point to the same going forward.

[Bloomberg Tech Interviewer]

Let's take the driver out of it for a moment and talk about robotaxis. You kind of explained the plan for the rest of the year, which is to get into more cities through different partnerships and different lanes, different methods. Let's start with that. You know, are you wanting to see the team accelerate a bit on that deployment, Dara?

[Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO]

Yeah, definitely. So we're in seven cities already with a number of partners. And just to review, we want to work with all of the ecosystem partners and just like we want every safe driver, human driver on our platform, we want every safe robot driver on our platform. And we're working with the entire ecosystem to accomplish that. We're in seven markets now. By the end of the year we will be in 15 markets and we're on track to be on 50 markets. And we see, you know, a lot of advancements as it relates to our partners. I know you're going to have Aisha from Zoox on, they got a great approval from the NHTSA to run their like really, really innovative and cool robot vehicles as well. We got approval for Wave to start testing operations in London as well. In video, who is a huge partner of ours, announced the release of their Alpha Mayo 2 model, which is a physical AI model as well. So the ecosystem around AV continues to move forward, is actually accelerating and we are helping that ecosystem accelerate through our partnership, through investment through data Collect for a number of these partners and then ultimately commercialization of these vehicles on the road in the cities in which we live.

[Bloomberg Tech Interviewer]

Dara, on Zoox, and I'll ask this obviously, but you know, now they can charge a fare, which is a first for a true robotaxi. No driver controls. When does that that manifest on the Uber app? When will Zoox be available on an Uber app in whichever city with a fare associated with it?

[Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO]

We think later this year actually in Las Vegas, and then we'll expand from there. And Zeus's strategy is going to be to make their vehicles available on Uber as well as on the Zoox app as well. So we're very, very excited to work with that.

[Bloomberg Tech Interviewer]

A lot of people want to understand what's happening in the relationship with Waymo. There was a change of plans in Phenix, but how confident are you also about sort of renewing non exclusive contracts with Waymo? I think that your agreements with them, for example in Austin, Atlanta run through 2028 and then you got to work out how to go from there.

[Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO]

Yes. So the, the deployment in Phoenix was a really small deployment. It was less than 10 cars. So that's not material in any way, shape or form. We're going to continue to work with Waymo. It's been a strong partnership going forward into 28 as well. And you know, our philosophy has always been we don't want to be dependent on one partner one way or the other. Of course we'd love to continue the relationship with Waymo, but then you've got partners like Zoox, a wave, we ride Avride and then of course Nvidia as well, so that we're not dependent on any single player to keep driving and growing this ecosystem.

[Bloomberg Tech Interviewer]

By the way, Dara, we're live on Bloomberg Television and on Bloomberg Radio and this is Bloomberg Tech speaking to Uber's CEO. And you've just said that you don't want to rely on any one partner. Let me put it a different way. If we accept that Waymo is kind of the commercial robotaxi leader in the US at least in terms of deployments, charging a fare of the rest of the field, which do you think is most competitive or going to be most competitive against Waymo?

[Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO]

I think, I think there are going to be multiple winners. I mean this market is so early in its development and I compare it to like the foundation model space you remember like three years ago or two years ago, you were like, open air is going to run away with it. They're going to, they're going to be the only game in town. Then it turned into Anthropic and Claude is, you know, the best model that's going to conquer them all. Now you see, you know, X, AI and SpaceX coming in with Grok and the combination with Cursor being a really great combination as well. You've got Google coming in with Gemini. They were late in the game, but they're definitely in the game in video, releasing open source and really supporting that ecosystem. So there is going to be no single winner here. Waymo's in the lead now, just like OpenAI was in the lead. But there are going to be many, many players as part of this ecosystem and we will help the ecosystem overall commercialize because ultimately we've got the demand and we can bring more rides to those cars and monetize those vehicles in a way that no one else can.

[Bloomberg Tech Interviewer]

So Dara really quick to drive Early Adoption Is it important that the robotaxi firms price lower than other rideshare?

[Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO]

No, actually what we're seeing is pricing is is super strong and demand is super strong as well. So when you get the product in market, it sells. It's taken a long time, right? Like 20% of search now is driven by AI. AV is less than 0.5% of overall trips at this point. So the adoption is going to take time. But the product is a terrific product and we look forward to making it available on the Uber app really all over the world.

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[The Hartford Representative]

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