Uber’s long road to robotaxis

TL;DR: Starting this week, Uber is offering robotaxi rides in London—beating rival Waymo to the punch in one of the largest ride-hail markets in the world. Yet, confusingly, the company is also trying to slow down the spread of robotaxis in the US (and partnering with drivers to do so). It shows what a strange moment the company is in as it tries to gain the upper hand in this nascent market.

What happened: London might be Uber’s biggest robotaxi challenge yet: It’s a megapolis with extremely dense, complicated roads—there’s roughly a 50% fail rate for the driver’s license test, per The New York Times (and notoriously high standards to become one of its cab drivers).

Uber’s partnering with British firm Wayve for this London debut—starting with 15 cars and safety drivers. Its robotaxi service is currently live in eight cities, but rapidly accelerating. The company plans to have robotaxis cruising in 15 cities by the end of this year—more than the number of cities Waymo currently operates in.

At long last: Uber’s been chasing self-driving cars for a very long time—a project that co-founder Travis Kalanick once called “existential” for the company. A quick refresher: It launched its own self-driving R&D department in 2015 but faced a lot of roadblocks, including Waymo suing it for allegedly stealing trade secrets. Uber settled the case in 2018 and sold off its autonomous driving division in 2020.

Now, self-driving tech is finally good enough for commercial deployment, and Uber is trying to scale rapidly. It’s been partnering with dozens of firms that build autonomous vehicles—including Waymo—to offer robotaxis through its app. Yesterday, the company announced plans to lay off 3,300 staff roles in a cost-saving move—and it follows a recent commitment to invest $10 billion into its robotaxi push over the next few years.

Uber’s 4D chess move?: In its ambitious bid to expand robotaxis, Uber’s apparently willing to do a 180 on its attitude toward human drivers: It’s now claiming we need them. The company is standing alongside drivers unions (you know, those same ones it’s been fighting with over pay and working conditions) to limit autonomous vehicle rollouts in certain parts of the US.

Even the company’s president noted that this pro-driver stance might “feel ironic”—but it’s all to help prevent a robotaxi monopoly. (In other words, stopping giants like Waymo.)

Bottom line: As Uber’s long-awaited robotaxi enterprise ramps up, it’s trying to have its cake and eat it too: rapidly expanding its self-driving offerings, while siding with the human drivers it’s been at odds with to ensure its competitors don’t speed ahead. —WK

Also in robotaxis…

• Waymo has racked up an average of 106 parking tickets a week in San Francisco since January last year.
• Tesla’s big Cybercab event finally takes place tonight.