Uber (New York Stock Exchange: Uber) is going all-in on autonomous vehicles and plans to build a market where the company can remain as “pure-play” as possible, Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi said at Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia+ technology Conference.
“The landscape “It’s dynamic,” Khosrowshahi said, “and we want to play where we’re strong and target demand versus supply which increases supplier profits and supplier utilization.”
Khosrowshahi confirmed that Uber (UBER) is working with 10 autonomous vehicle companies in the mobility space, including Waymo and Cruise, and now Wave in the U.K., and anticipates that the software will “get to a very good point in the next three to five years.”
When it comes to advertising, one of the biggest areas of growth for Uber (UBER) is the inclusion of sponsors, especially in the grocery sector, and the company is actively launching in markets outside the US, expanding into what Khosrowshahi sees as a “highly profitable business.”
In addition to the expansion of autonomous vehicles, Khosrowshahi has made growing the business organically rather than through acquisitions a priority for Uber (UBER), and has put much of the company’s effort into organic growth. “The way to make attractive deals is to not make a deal in the first place,” he said.
Ultimately, Khosrowshahi intends to use the majority of Uber's (UBER) incremental capital on buybacks with the goal of reducing the company's share base in the future.
“We want to have the lowest possible capital consumption,” he added.
