Is Waymo friend or enemy to Uber?

In 2020, Uber was at a crossroads: the company had made a expensive commitment in the robots taxis, but the project was loaded with legal problems and burning cash. Then Uber gave it to another new company.

But five years later, Uber's future seems as linked to autonomous vehicles as always. The company is now betting on that you can adopt taxis without a driver without spending money to build them, at the risk of being overcome by the companies that do it.

In recent months, Uber has doubled what he calls his “platform strategy”, associating with robot taxis companies like Waymo. In Phoenix, passengers can ask for a Waymo car through the Uber application, and in Austin, Texas, the Waymo Robot Taxis will soon put the Uber logo. The travel transport giant now has 15 autonomous vehicle associations, from Waymo to international companies such as Weride and autonomous food delivery services such as Avride.

But those partners are also competitors. In December, when Waymo said it was expanding to Miami without an Uber association, Uber's shares fell 9 percent. And Waymo's expansion is far from more: last month, the company announced that it would try its vehicles in 10 new cities this year.

The executive director of Tesla, Elon Musk, said last week that his company would have a driver without driver on Austin's roads in June. He had made similar predictions for years about when Tesla vehicles could lead themselves, but industry experts say it is very likely that it is only a matter of time before their company fulfilled their promise.

For Uber, the question is whether the expansion of the taxi without a driver will attribute it or will be hit. “No one is sure who the winning technology will be,” said Tom White, a senior investigation analyst at Financial Davidson. “Then, everyone keeps their potential enemies nearby.”

On Wednesday morning, Uber said that in its most recent quarter, its gross reserves, an important measure of the company's business, grew 18 percent compared to the previous year, which was higher than what Wall Street investors They expected. Uber's revenues increased 20 percent to $ 12 billion, also higher than Wall Street expectations. Uber also exceeded net income expectations thanks to $ 7 billion in tax benefits.

Wall Street analysts asked Uber executives about their vision for the Robot Taxi market at a telephone conference on Wednesday morning.

“The first markets that will be penetrated will depend on the regulation,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, executive director of Uber. “I think that in the next five years, the addressable market will probably be 10 to 15 percent of the general market.”

In the 2010, the exaggeration around autonomous vehicles “probably advanced to technology,” said Andrew MacDonald, Senior Mobility Vice President of Uber, in an interview. “Now that is starting to turn.”

It is difficult to know if Waymo has reduced Uber's businesses, even in cities such as San Francisco, where Waymo cars can be described fairly as a conventional transport option. (Mr. Khosrowshahi said the robots taxis have not affected Ubers' demand).

Lyft, Uber's main rival, has adopted a similar approach to robots taxis, announcing three autonomous associations since November, with more in process.

The value of robots taxis for Uber and Lyft is clear: human work is one of its greatest costs. Companies also imagine a future when people will buy robot taxis to use as personal vehicles and, in off hours, they will rent them to transport networks, said Jeremy Bird, head of Lyft driver experience.

But for now, robots taxis are more expensive than they are profitable and require a huge amount of capital to develop. After General Motors, the owner of Cruise, withdrew from the Robot Taxi competition in December, the company club financed the autonomy race essentially reduced to two: Alphabet, the parent company of Waymo and Google, and amazon, Zoox's father. .

In Phoenix, passengers can ask for a waymo through the Uber application, an agreement that will soon reach Atlanta and Austin. In these two cities, Uber will also provide fleet management services such as cleaning and loading. The company takes a part of the income of each trip, probably between 10 and 20 percent, according to analysts' estimates. (Mr. Macdonald refused to provide financial details of the association, but said they would evolve over time).

The largest supply of vehicles in Uber and Lyft applications also shortens waiting costs and reduces passenger costs. And both companies already operate fleet management businesses, so taking care of those services for a partner like Waymo is convenient, Macdonald and Mr. Bird said.

For consumers, having Taxi Robot trips in an application like Uber or Lyft is a raffle in itself. “That is the greatest benefit to us,” Bird said. “Simply diversifying the types of options that runners have on the platform.”

But the value of an Uber association for Waymo becomes less clear in a city like San Francisco, where Waymos demand already exceeds the offer.

Melissa Covarrubias, lawyer of Phoenix, now takes Waymo as a transport option, feeling more safe and more comfortable after negative experiences with the drivers of Uber and Lyft, he said.

“And the interior of Waymo is so pleasant and luxurious, and you can select your own music,” he added.

Sean Campbell, also a lawyer in Phoenix, said that Waymo had become his choice of transport about 35 percent of the time, especially when he went to work. But use Lyft to reach events such as sports games or concerts, where Waymo would have to sail to large crowds.

“But for a party night, I always take Waymo,” Campbell said. “What happens with Waymo, beyond technology: it's fun.”

Uber's relationship with Google, before Waymo left, had tumultuous beginnings. In 2016, Anthony Levandowski, a leading Google engineer, left the company and then became an executive of Uber. In 2020, he was convicted to steal the commercial secrets of Google, among other legal disputes between the two companies.

But Mr. Khosrowshahi, who assumed the position of executive director of Uber 2017, repaired the relationship. In 2020, he delivered the Autonomous Research Division of Uber to the new Aurora company, which Uber then invested $ 400 million.

“First we had to make peace with them and establish ourselves in court, etc.,” Khosrowshahi said to New York Times in a recent podcast. He added: “And then for a period of time, we build relationships.”

In response to questions about his association with Uber, a Waymo spokesman provided a company statement Blog Announcing the expansion to Atlanta and Austin.

Uber's gain calls have become a regular forum so that analysts splashed Mr. Khosrowshahi with questions about their autonomous strategy. While most analysts believe that the company is on a promising track with their associations, robots taxis have a great “risk or opportunity for Uber,” said Nikhil Devnani, Bernstein analyst. “I think the market is still trying to find out what result it will be.”