In addition to its vast ride-sharing and delivery services empire, Uber is also trying to become an AI company.
The company’s third-quarter earnings call Tuesday morning was proof of that, with Uber executives sharing all the ways they hope to drive the company’s profit growth. Two of the five core strategic areas that executives focus on are AI-related.
The first is a recently announced pilot program that allows drivers and couriers using the app to earn a few extra dollars by training an AI model. Uber users will be able to earn rewards by completing microtasks such as uploading photos, annotating security footage, recording themselves speaking in their native language, submitting documents, and determining responses. The feature, called “Digital Tasks,” is currently only available to drivers and couriers in India and the United States, but executives plan to expand the user base and hope to attract users beyond current Uber drivers and couriers.
“Some roles require a Ph.D. in physics or something like that to do the job, so to speak,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said during an earnings call.
This initiative is part of Uber AI Solutions, the company’s AI data services business. Khosrowshahi said the business is “getting a huge amount of customers.”
It may seem like an odd pivot for a technology platform focused on transportation and logistics, but it’s all part of the company’s main goal of making Uber the be-all and end-all app for both transportation and “flexible” work.
“If you look at our platform another way, we are a platform for work, and the first type of work we pursued was transportation. But we can also power other types of work, and that’s what the Uber AI solution is all about,” Khosrowshahi said.
The second way Uber hopes to leverage AI to drive revenue is through self-driving cars, which has everything to do with Uber’s ambition to become the be-all-end-all app for transportation. Khosrowshahi said Uber wants to integrate “human drivers and self-driving cars into a single market.”
As a result, Uber is fully committed to robotaxis. The company announced last week that it is partnering with Nvidia to build a fleet of 100,000 robotaxis, with construction to begin in 2027.
Khosrowshahi acknowledged on the earnings call that self-driving cars aren’t profitable yet, and likely won’t be for at least a few more years.
Beyond the issue of delayed profitability, robotaxis also have a number of safety concerns. Just last week, a bodega cat was killed in San Francisco after being hit by a Waymo vehicle. The incident sparked public outrage, and city supervisors called for legislation that would allow counties to ban self-driving cars.
The timing couldn’t have been worse for Uber, which just last week announced it would begin testing robotaxis in San Francisco in partnership with electric car company Lucid Motors and self-driving car maker Nuro.
But despite all that, Uber’s chief remained optimistic about the technology’s future. He suggested that in 10 years, “every new car sold” will have self-driving capabilities.
“It’s a very bright future for the world, because the world will be safer,” he said.
