Throughout an earnings name final month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated that the electrical automobile maker would begin providing paid rides in June for its full self-driving robotaxi service. Now Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is making it clear that he does not wish to compete with Tesla — he desires to associate with the corporate to supply robotaxi rides by means of Uber’s ride-hailing platform.
“Pay attention, nobody desires to compete towards Tesla or Elon should you might help it,” Khosrowshahi advised expertise analyst Ben Thompson in an interview revealed in Thompson’s publication Statechery on Thursday. “Their capabilities are fairly extraordinary, however I feel the identical financial legal guidelines apply to them.”
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Khosrowshahi stated that Tesla would profit by permitting its robotaxis to supply rides by means of Uber. As an alternative of riders accessing the robotaxis solely by means of the Tesla app, they may faucet into rides with the self-driving automobiles by means of Uber too.
Working with Uber may assist maximize Tesla’s earnings by increasing its attain. Uber accomplished a median of 33 million journeys per day, in response to the corporate’s newest earnings report.
“That’s going to create a lot, way more income,” Khosrowshahi said. “Finally that’ll improve the worth of the Tesla in order that the residual worth of that automobile improves.”
Khosrowshahi added that if Tesla places their robotaxis on Uber’s community, the self-driving automobiles would be a part of 150,000 different Tesla automobiles on Uber at the moment, including to a longtime presence.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Jose Sarmento Matos/Bloomberg through Getty Photos
This is not the primary time Khosrowshahi has indicated an curiosity in partnering with Tesla. In an interview with the Monetary Instances that aired in October, Khosrowshahi stated that he would “love” to deliver Tesla’s robotaxis to Uber when the expertise was prepared. He stated that he aimed to collaborate with the autonomous business, pointing to partnerships introduced in late 2024 with Alphabet’s Waymo and Cruise.
Uber already has robotaxis on its app in sure areas by means of its partnerships, together with Phoenix, Arizona, and Austin, Texas. The corporate put its personal goals of constructing a self-driving automobile to the aspect in 2020 when it bought its autonomous automobile analysis division to self-driving startup Aurora.
Khosrowshahi advised the Wall Road Journal final month that autonomous automobiles would take over Uber rides within the subsequent 15 to twenty years, placing human Uber drivers out of labor.
Khosrowshahi took over Uber in 2017, main the corporate to its first annual working revenue in 2023. After reporting a lack of $1.8 billion in 2022, Uber reported an annual revenue of $1.1 billion in 2023 and $2.8 billion in 2024.
