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Expanded partnership builds on the partnership in Zagreb and targets four additional cities in Europe.

, /PRNewswire/ -- Pony AI Inc. ("Pony.ai") (NASDAQ: PONY; HKEX: 2026), a global leader in the large-scale commercialization of autonomous driving technology, and Uber Technologies, Inc. ("Uber") (NYSE: UBER), today announced an expansion of their strategic partnership, with plans to collaborate on the deployment of more than 2,000 Pony.ai Robotaxis across Europe.     

The partnership will expand from the existing commercial service in Zagreb, coming soon to the Uber platform, to four additional cities in Europe. Additional details about the rollout will be announced in phases and the expanded partnership also includes plans to deploy in the Middle East.     

The expanded agreement gives Pony.ai's joint-deployment model a clearer path to commercial scale. The model brings together three core functions required to operate Robotaxi services at scale: Level 4 (L4) autonomous driving technology, a leading mobility platform, and day-to-day fleet operations. It allows technology, platform, and fleet partners to work together in the same market, while individual partners may also take on more than one role. Vehicle funding and ownership can sit with different partners depending on the market.

Under the expanded partnership, Pony.ai will provide its L4 autonomous driving technology, rider-experience and operational expertise developed through multiple large-scale Robotaxi deployments while Uber will provide customer access through its leading global mobility platform, including booking, payment, and customer service capabilities, alongside its growing network of human drivers. Day-to-day fleet operations may be carried out by established local fleet partners selected for each market.

Pony.ai operates paid, fully driverless Robotaxi services in China's four tier-one cities, where it has achieved city-wide breakeven unit economics in multiple markets, validating its commercially sustainable model for operating Robotaxis at scale.

For Pony.ai, the expanded partnership with Uber marks a further evolution of its growth strategy, complementing continued expansion into new markets with fleet deployments at regional scale. The collaboration dates back to May 2025, when Pony.ai and Uber first announced plans to bring Pony.ai Robotaxis onto the Uber platform in international markets. In 2026, the companies worked with Croatian mobility company Verne to launch Europe's first commercial Robotaxi service in Zagreb, with Verne serving as the local fleet owner and operator.

"This expanded agreement marks an important new phase in the partnership between Pony.ai and Uber. It reflects our shared commitment to bringing safe, reliable Robotaxi services to more European cities," said Dr. James Peng, Founder and CEO of Pony.ai. "By combining Pony.ai's proven autonomous driving technology and operational know-how with Uber's global mobility platform and extensive market reach, we aim to build sustained commercial operations at scale across Europe and beyond."

"The next chapter for autonomous mobility is about moving from individual launches to repeatable commercial scale," said Sarfraz Maredia, Global Head of Autonomous Mobility & Delivery at Uber. "Together with Pony.ai, we're combining advanced autonomous technology with Uber's hybrid platform, on-the-ground experience, and operational excellence, to build a model that can quickly and reliably expand across cities."    

About Pony AI Inc.

Pony AI Inc. is a global leader in achieving large-scale commercialization of autonomous mobility. Leveraging its vehicle-agnostic Virtual Driver technology, a full-stack autonomous driving technology that seamlessly integrates Pony.ai's proprietary software, hardware and services, Pony.ai is developing a commercially viable and sustainable business model that enables the mass production and deployment of vehicles across transportation use cases. Founded in 2016, Pony.ai has expanded its presence across China, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and other regions, ensuring widespread access to its advanced technology.

About Uber Technologies, Inc.

Uber's mission is to create opportunity through movement. We started in 2010 to solve a simple problem: how do you get access to a ride at the touch of a button? More than 79 billion trips later, we're building products to get people closer to where they want to be. By changing how people, food, and things move through cities, Uber is a platform that opens up the world to new possibilities.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains statements that may constitute "forward-looking" statements pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "aims," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "likely to," and similar statements. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Pony.ai's beliefs, plans, and expectations are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Pony.ai's filings with the SEC and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and Pony.ai does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.

Amid a rising stock market, Uber (UBER -4.05%) is down by about 8% year to date, but the company's fundamentals reflect a different reality. It is the leader in the ride-hailing industry, and it continues to gain market share. Furthermore, its valuation has become more compelling due to the prolonged slide it has been experiencing since last autumn.

A stock's price should not continue to drop as the company's underlying fundamentals improve. Eventually, a rally should take shape, and Uber has a few catalysts that could bring it back into the green this year.

Image source: Getty Images.

New users are flocking to Uber In the press release announcing Uber's Q2 results, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that the platform had "added more first-time users over the past 12 months than in any period over the past five years." More users translated into higher revenue growth rates, but good retention rates can give the company's recent revenue gains a solid foundation.

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The company's monthly active platform consumers rose by 16% year over year, which means people who use the app are requesting rides throughout the year. That growth also came with an 18% year-over-year increase in trips.

Although Uber got its start with ride-hailing services, its food delivery business has become a major catalyst. In fact, the delivery segment drove most of the revenue growth. It was up by 28% year over year in the second quarter, while the transportation component of the app only posted 1% growth. Deliveries now make up more than one-third of total sales.

Rising profits and a falling stock price translate into a low valuation The revenue growth has also come with rising profit margins. After being unprofitable for more than a decade, Uber started to turn a profit in 2023, and its net income has continued to climb.

Its non-GAAP (adjusted) net income, which does not reflect gains from its equity investments, was up by 29% in Q2. Its $1.6 billion in non-GAAP net income resulted in an 11.6% profit margin.

To top it all off, Uber trades at a P/E ratio of just under 17 today. Its food delivery competitor DoorDash (DASH +0.23%) commands a P/E ratio of around 110. Although DoorDash is growing at a faster rate than Uber, the latter is delivering higher margins. Uber may also see a long-term revenue boost once autonomous vehicles become more common on its platform.

Although Uber doesn't deserve a 110 P/E ratio, and investors can make an argument about DoorDash being overvalued, the stock's current valuation suggests that a rally may be imminent. Uber is riding long-term tailwinds that should support elevated revenue and net income in future quarters.

Marc Guberti has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends DoorDash. The Motley Fool recommends Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

A hacking and extortion gang has taken credit for a cyberattack and data breach at Uber Freight, the ride-sharing giant’s logistics subsidiary.

A spokesperson for Uber Freight told Reuters, which first reported the incident, that there was no effect on its business operations and that its systems were running normally (The company did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s questions about the incident.)

The shipping company is the latest victim in a spate of hacks in recent weeks conducted by the Helix hacking group, which has targeted transportation companies, financial giants, and private equity firms throughout the year. The hackers are known for targeting companies and exfiltrating large amounts of data from their cloud environments, which they then threaten to publish if the victim companies do not pay a ransom.

In a post on its data leak site, which it uses to host the stolen files, the Helix hackers claim to have taken mailboxes, cloud storage drives, files relating to accounts payable and dispatch documents from Uber Freight.

Some of the files seen by TechCrunch appear to show email correspondence between Uber Freight and several of its customers. TechCrunch could not immediately verify the authenticity of the files, which appeared to be dated around mid-June.

Uber Freight has not yet said if it received any correspondence from the hackers, or if it paid the hackers a ransom. 

Google said earlier this week that the Helix hacking group is part of a wider umbrella collective of hackers that it tracks as UNC6671. The gang relies on social engineering tactics, such as voice phishing, a tactic that involves calling up IT helpdesks and requesting the reset of employee passwords. Security researchers have long warned that these attacks, while crude and rudimentary, are highly effective at tricking humans into granting access to sensitive systems.

In its blog post, Google said a review of the gang’s bitcoin wallets shows it has made at least $10.6 million in ransom payments between January and May this year.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

Zack Whittaker is the security editor at TechCrunch. He also authors the weekly cybersecurity newsletter, this week in security.

He can be reached via encrypted message at zackwhittaker.1337 on Signal. You can also contact him by email, or to verify outreach, at [email protected].

Legendary hedge fund investor and billionaire Bill Ackman went all in on Uber Technologies (UBER +0.24%) at the start of 2025, but more than a year and a half later, his $2 billion investment in the rideshare operator hasn't gone very far. He's still probably up on his investment, having reportedly bought most of his shares in early January 2025, but after a surge to over $100 per share, the stock is off 25% from its highs and up only about 15% from early January 2025.

When Ackman revealed his stake in Uber in February 2025, he called it "one of the best-managed and highest quality businesses in the world." He said the long-term risk from autonomous driving looked limited, believing these companies are more likely to partner with Uber given its scaled network.

He also noted that delivery, which makes up half its bookings, is unlikely to be affected given the need for a person to pick up and deliver the food. Ackman also believed the company was well positioned to see rapid earnings growth in the medium term coming from a combination of strong revenue growth and expense control.

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Bullish thesis remains on track Ackman's thesis that Uber would see strong operating leverage and brisk earnings growth has largely been playing out, even if the stock hasn't always followed suit. The stock immediately fell in the aftermath of its Q2 results, reported before the bell on Aug. 5, although it has since rebounded.

Bill Ackman. Image source: Getty Images.

For the quarter, Uber's revenue climbed 12% year over year, or 11% on a constant currency basis, to $14.19 billion. However, it saw an 8-percentage-point headwind because of a business model change in some international markets that affected its accounting.

The change stems from laws in the U.K. and some other European countries that require the company to classify drivers as workers rather than independent contractors, shifting how things such as fares and drivers' earnings affect revenue in these markets. However, the reclassification doesn't affect other metrics such as operating income, adjusted EBITDA, or free cash flow.

Nonetheless, the revenue number came up just short of the analyst consensus for revenue of $14.24 billion, as compiled by LSEG, and its guidance was below expectations.

Both the company's main segments -- mobility (rideshare) and delivery (home to UberEats) -- saw strong gross bookings (the total dollar amount billed to customers) in Q2. Mobility gross bookings climbed 22% to $29 billion, although its revenue rose by just 1% to $7.4 billion because of the business model change. Segment adjusted EBITDA, however, climbed 28% to $2.2 billion. Its U.S. mobility operations benefited from the World Cup, as well as newer offerings like U4B, or Uber for business.

Delivery gross bookings climbed 26% to $27.5 billion, while revenue grew 28% to $5.2 billion and segment EBITDA increased 38% to nearly $1.1 billion. The company also announced earlier that it will acquire Germany's Delivery Hero to help expand its international presence.

Uber's overall gross bookings rose 24% year over year in the quarter, while trips in the quarter climbed 18% to 3.9 billion. Showing strong operating leverage in the business, adjusted EBITDA surged 33% to $2.8 billion, while adjusted EPS soared 35% to $0.81. However, that just met analyst EPS estimates.

Looking ahead, the company forecast gross bookings to rise between 18% and 22% to a range of $58.25 billion to $60.25 billion. It projected that adjusted EPS would increase to a range of $0.84 to $0.88, representing growth of 28% to 35%. That was below the $0.89 analyst consensus, according to LSEG.

Is the stock a buy? Trading at a forward P/E of 17 based on 2027 analyst estimates, Uber's stock is attractively valued given the strong bookings growth and operating leverage its business is seeing. The company isn't sitting still, with new offerings, such as U4B, and expansion into lower-density markets representing solid growth opportunities. Meanwhile, the acquisition of Delivery Hero should help it scale its delivery network in international markets via its various brands.

The ultimate impact of robotaxis on its business remains a question, but the company is investing in the space with various partners and targeting being in 15 cities or more by the end of 2027. It looks as if the company should continue to play an important role in the rideshare and delivery markets in the future. Given its current valuation, I think the stock looks attractive at current levels.

Key Takeaways In Q2, Serve cut 2026 revenue guidance to $9M-$10M from $26M after removing an expected Uber volume ramp.DoorDash partnership revenues grew nearly 50% sequentially, while recurring revenues topped 50% of total.Serve is building direct merchant access with Beacon and plans another product this fall to broaden demand. Serve Robotics Inc. (SERV - Free Report) used its second-quarter 2026 earnings call to explain a sharp reset in its Uber relationship and 2026 revenue outlook after delivery volume declined for the first time in 17 quarters.

CEO Ali Kashani and CFO Brian Read framed the shift as reallocating fleet capacity and capital toward stronger utilization, recurring revenue and operating alignment.

SERV Recasts the Uber RelationshipCo-Founder and CEO Ali Kashani said lower-than-expected robot utilization through Uber reflected differences over fleet coordination, merchant integration and the operating model, rather than weaker customer or merchant demand.

Kashani said Serve does not currently expect to renew the Uber agreement when it expires in early 2027 unless the operating model improves meaningfully. Discussions with Uber are continuing.

Prior guidance assumed a substantial second-half Uber volume ramp, which Serve removed from the 2026 outlook.

Serve Resets 2026 Outlook and SpendingSERV’s second-quarter revenues were $3.24 million, up 404% year over year and 9% sequentially, but missed the $3.54 million Zacks Consensus Estimate. Non-GAAP net loss was $47.1 million, or 59 cents per share. The reported loss of 80 cents per share was wider than the 69-cent Zacks Consensus Estimate.

Serve cut full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $9 million-$10 million from $26 million.

The company’s 2026 non-GAAP operating expense guidance fell to $140 million-$150 million from $160 million-$170 million. Planned capital expenditures were reduced to about $15 million-$17 million from roughly $25 million.

SERV Leans on Diversified Revenue ChannelsCo-Founder and CEO Ali Kashani highlighted DoorDash as a counterpoint to Uber, saying partnership revenues grew nearly 50% sequentially in the second quarter. He also said another major delivery marketplace partnership was set to be announced.

Kashani said advertising represented nearly half of robotic food-delivery revenues. CFO Brian Read added that campaigns span local and national customers, with robot wraps still the primary format.

The CFO said recurring revenues exceeded 50% of total revenues, supported by hospital robotics. Serve signed seven multiyear hospital contract extensions and added two new hospitals in the first half of 2026.

Serve Builds More Direct Merchant AccessAli Kashani said Serve is developing direct distribution to reduce dependence on any single delivery platform. Beacon, a cellular countertop device, is designed to connect restaurants directly with Serve.

The CEO said almost two-thirds of delivery orders in Serve's operating areas cannot use robotic last-mile delivery because of back-of-house integration barriers. Beacon is intended to work without restaurant internet or point-of-sale integration.

Kashani also said Serve plans another product later this fall aimed at generating direct customer demand and broadening the goods its network can move beyond food.

SERV Q&A Presses Utilization and AutonomyA Northland Capital Markets analyst pressed management on the second-quarter utilization decline. Co-Founder and CEO Ali Kashani said Serve and Uber were not fully aligned on order allocation, fleet organization and operating responsibility.

An Oppenheimer analyst asked how investors should track autonomy efficiency. Kashani said key measures are whether robots become faster, safer and more reliable while supporting revenue growth and margin improvement.

A Ladenburg Thalmann analyst asked about advertising. Both the CEO and CFO said Serve is seeing local and national campaigns plus growing experiential use, but management did not provide separate advertising guidance.

Serve Narrows Priorities After the ResetCFO Brian Read said spending will increasingly focus on autonomy performance, utilization, recurring revenues and gross-margin improvement. He also said Serve is reviewing overlapping G&A and shared services while integrating Diligent Robotics.

Read emphasized that core autonomy and software remain investment areas.

The CFO framed the updated plan around tighter prioritization, with capital focused on robot productivity and operating leverage.

SERV’s Zacks Rank & Style Scores Stay CautiousSERV currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Its Value Score is F, Growth Score is F, Momentum Score is C and VGM Score is F, leaving it without the A or B Style Scores that provide stronger complementary signals to top Zacks Ranks.

The rank does not carry the same positive signal as Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) stocks, while the Style Score hierarchy places C above F but below A and B. The Zacks Rank can change as estimates are revised after the just-reported results.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Uber's CTO said the company's tokenmaxxing era is coming to an end. Big Event Media/Getty Images for HumanX Conference Uber is shutting the door on its infamous tokenmaxxing era.

In a Wednesday X post, Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga said the company is seeing some "very interesting trends on AI costs," and that this was "another signal that we're coming to the end of the so-called 'tokenmaxxing' era."

Tokenmaxxing is an enterprise AI trend that emerged in the first half of 2026, in which companies urge their employees to adopt AI as much as possible in their workflows. Some companies made AI usage a performance metric that staff would be evaluated on.

Naga said that since the beginning of the year, the number of people at Uber using frontier AI tools has quadrupled, but this has coincided with a decline in per-AI-token costs.

The company managed to lower costs by improving its prompt caching process, using better default models, giving engineers better visibility into their AI usage, and experimenting with open-weight models, Naga wrote in his post.

"The next phase, whatever we call it, will not be characterized by who spends the most tokens, but about how people use them as efficiently as possible," he added.

Uber's finance chief, Balaji Krishnamurthy, shared similar updates during the company's second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

"On AI, we are very early, but what we are seeing is that we are able to cost-efficiently deliver some productivity lifts with developers," he said.

"And for the measurement that we are looking at right now, we are seeing doubling in the code output for engineers," Krishnamurthy added.

Uber made headlines earlier this year for igniting the tokenmaxxing trend, with Naga saying in April that the company had already blown through its 2026 budget for Anthropic's Claude Code. He said in a March LinkedIn post that 1,800 code changes weekly were entirely written by its internal coding agent.

But in May, Uber COO Andrew Macdonald said in an interview that it was getting harder to justify the trade-offs of AI investments in the company. He said he wasn't seeing proportional productivity gains from the increased AI costs.

This is not only an Uber problem; the rest of the tech industry has been grappling with how to get better returns on investment from their highly inflated AI spending. Some, like Coinbase, have said they're experimenting with model switching, which involves assigning the most challenging tasks to frontier models and offloading easier, repetitive tasks to cheaper ones.

The problem of enterprise AI spending has also driven a new wave of businesses geared toward helping companies reduce their costs. Some are consultancies that give executives advice on how to allocate their AI budgets; others are building products like inference infrastructure to help companies scale their AI products cost-effectively.

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Aditi Bharade You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.

Uber

“What I am increasingly optimistic about are the potential with drones,” Khosrowshahi said on Uber’s second-quarter earnings call.

Cutting food delivery times from roughly 30 minutes today to as little as 10 to 15 minutes could fundamentally change the customer experience, he argues.

Why Uber Is Looking UpUber has spent the past year expanding partnerships across robotaxis and sidewalk delivery robots as well as drone delivery company Flytrex.

“Drone delivery can cut the timing of delivery significantly,” Khosrowshahi said, acknowledging that it will take time before costs become sustainable. Even so, he believes the improvement in speed could make the technology compelling for consumers.

“Already… ordering dinner and getting it delivered to your home in 30 minutes is a magical experience,” he added. “We think in 15 minutes—it’s going to be, you know, 10 to 15 minutes—is going to be an even more magical experience.”

Uber’s Autonomous Strategy Goes Beyond Self-Driving Cars Uber is already working with partners including Serve Robotics Inc. (NASDAQ:SERV) and Cartken on sidewalk delivery robots. Drones represent the next frontier for faster deliveries.

“While we’re on the sidewalks now as it relates to our delivery business, we’re looking forward to getting in the air with some of the partners out there,” Khosrowshahi said.

The comments also underscore that Uber’s autonomous strategy is broader than self-driving cars.

Much of the company’s recent autonomous vehicle narrative has centered on partnerships with companies including Waymo, Zoox, Wayve and Nuro. But management is increasingly describing autonomy as an ecosystem that spans robotaxis, delivery robots and aerial drones, with Uber serving as the platform connecting those technologies to consumers.

For investors, the takeaway is that Uber’s automation strategy isn’t solely about replacing drivers. The company also sees faster deliveries as a meaningful opportunity to improve the customer experience—and Khosrowshahi believes reducing delivery times to 10 to 15 minutes could be one of the clearest examples of that vision coming to life.

Photo courtesy: Shutterstock

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Uber Technologies UBER stock is under pressure on Wednesday morning, weakness that is being attributed primarily to the company’s disappointing Q2 earnings.

The ride-hailing giant reported $14.19 billion in revenue for its second quarter – missed the consensus estimate set at $14.24 billion – on essentially in-line 81 cents a share of earnings (EPS).

But a deeper dive suggests there’s actually more at play that is hurting UBER shares on August 5th.

Uber shares are slipping today also because management announced plans to spend more than $10 billion on autonomous vehicle commercialization over the coming years.

Given that the company has historically relied on asset-light AV partnerships, this bold commitment raised immediate questions regarding near-term capital discipline and free cash flow generation.

The announcement is proving particularly bearish as investors are still digesting UBER’s pending $14.8 billion acquisition of Delivery Hero, which will be funded via existing liquidity and debt.

Pairing this mega-deal with a new $10 billion autonomous vehicle pledge has amplified fears of execution risks and leverage strain.

Additionally, the post-earnings decline crashed Uber Technologies below its key moving averages (20-day and 50-day), bringing algorithmic selling into the equation as well.

While Q2 financials were not ultra bearish, the real pressure on UBER stock came from guidance.

Management expects non-GAAP earnings per share (EPS) to print at $0.86 in the current quarter, well below the $0.89 that analysts had called for.

Crucially, the outlook for Q3 gross bookings ($59.25 billion) also came in a little shy of consensus – due to foreign exchange headwinds that are expected to drag the metric down by about 1%.  

Other reasons that contributed to the muted future outlook include reinvestment of cost savings into lower-cost product tiers (such as Wait & Save and shared rides) and tougher year-over-year comps.

Note that Uber Technologies Inc does not currently pay a dividend to incentivize ownership despite soft guidance either.

Finally, the market remains cautious on UBER shares following recent disclosures that Waymo plans to launch its own standalone ride-hailing app in key markets like Austin and Atlanta starting in 2028.

Disintermediation fears are brewing as the Alphabet subsidiary weighs bypassing Uber’s network.

If Waymo launches its own app, it will transition from a lucrative tech partners into a formidable, well-capitalized competitor threatening UBER’s long-term growth premium.

This shift could strip premium autonomous volume from the firm’s network, severely compressing its take-rates in high-density urban markets.

Consequently, Uber faces the dual threat of accelerating driver supply costs and shrinking market share, clouding its path to sustained free cash flow dominance and triggering widespread valuation multiple compression.

That said, Wall Street continues to rate UBER at Strong Buy.

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Uber is applying AI in lots of small ways to its operations, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said. Bloomberg/Getty Images AI is reshaping Uber — gradually, and as it keeps a handle on AI spending.

The ride-hailing company kept a lid on its token spending during the second quarter by "by setting better defaults for different use cases," using lower-cost models for some tasks, and "letting employees more clearly understand and manage their spend," CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy said in prepared remarks after the company reported quarterly earnings on Wednesday.

"As a result, cost per token has declined over the past several months, even as adoption has continued to increase, allowing us to keep overall AI spend broadly stable," Krishnamurthy said.

Earlier this year, CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga went viral after saying that Uber had spent its Claude Code budget for 2026 after just a few months.

These days, Uber is also using AI to make lots of tiny changes to its app and offerings instead of taking big swings, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on the company's earnings call on Wednesday.

One example: Using AI, Uber provides destination suggestions when customers open the app to request a ride. Three-quarters of the time, the app correctly predicts where the ride is going with those suggestions, Khosrowshahi said.

"A lot of people expect these technologies that are revolutionary — and AI is revolutionary — to have some giant hit," he said.

Instead, "it's going to be thousands of small hits and improvements to our ecosystem that's going to drive, we think, growth for the foreseeable future," Khosrowshahi added.

Uber is also reshaping its internal operations with AI. The company laid off about 10% of its customer service workers last month, citing the opportunity for efficiency gains from AI.

On Wednesday's call, Krishnamurthy pointed to customer service as "a clear area where we should be able to up the quality of our customer support interactions as well as reduce the cost of our effort."

The company has also used "agentic pods" to find uses for AI from finance to HR.

Uber's consumer-facing uses of AI are also progressing, though they are unlikely to come all at once, Khosrowshahi said on the call.

Uber facilitates "hundreds of thousands" of rides in self-driving cars each week — less than 0.5% of the 300 million trips that happen through the app in the same period, the CEO said.

By contrast, AI has already become common for many online search users, Khosrowshahi said. Unlike AI chatbots, Uber's physical use of AI through robotaxis requires real-world testing and government approvals, he added.

Uber is also experimenting with other uses of AI that "improve the fundamental experience of the consumer," Khosrowshahi said. He pointed to Cart Assistant, which can create a shopping cart of grocery items in the Uber app from a recipe or shopping list and edit the cart based on feedback from customers.

Cart Assistant users have cart sizes that are twice as large as those of users who didn't use the AI tool, Khosrowshahi said.

"You should expect AI to contribute to average order size, the quality and reliability of our service as well, and putting the right product in front of you at the right time," he said.

Do you have a story idea about Uber? Contact this reporter at [email protected] or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

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Alex Bitter You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.

Alex Bitter is a senior retail reporter covering the gig economy, food, and retail. His work focuses major gig delivery and ride-hailing apps, including Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and Walmart's Spark. He is interested in everything from what it's like to work on the apps to the companies' business strategies.Some of his recent stories feature gig workers who have been deactivated on the apps, DoorDash hiring traditional employees to make deliveries, gig workers' use of bots, and gig work expanding into new professions, such as nursing.Alex has also written about Aldi's US expansion, Starbucks' turnaround efforts, and the fallout from Kraft-Heinz's budget cutting. Convenience store chain Sheetz ended its "smile policy" after his reporting.Before joining Insider in September 2020, he wrote about consumer and retail companies for S&P Global Market Intelligence. He's a graduate of the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and grew up on the Big Island.Alex lives in the Washington, DC, area, where you can find him studying ancient coins or searching for Civil War artifacts with his metal detector in his free time.Got a tip? Reach out at [email protected] or via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (808) 854-4501.

Uber AI Artificial Intelligence More self-driving cars ride-hailing Tech

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Uber issued a forecast for bookings and earnings that trailed analysts' estimates, while second-quarter profit was in line with expectations. Shares sank about 3.5% on Wednesday following the print.

Here's how the company did versus analysts' estimates compiled by LSEG:

Earnings per share: 81 cents vs. 81 cents expectedRevenue: $14.19 billion vs. $14.24 billion expectedRevenue increased 12% from $12.65 billion a year earlier. Net income climbed to $2.39 billion, or $1.17 a share, from $1.35 billion, or 63 cents a share, a year ago.

Uber's core mobility service accounted for $7.36 billion of second-quarter sales, while delivery revenue reached $5.25 billion. Mobility gross bookings rose 22% from a year to $28.99 billion, and delivery bookings jumped 26% $27.46 billion. Total bookings of $58 billion topped the $57.23 billion average analyst estimate, according to StreetAccount.

For the third quarter, Uber sees bookings of $59.25 billion at the middle of its range. That trails the average StreetAccount estimate of $59.33 billion. And the company's EPS forecast of 84 cents to 88 cents fell below the 89-cent average analyst estimate, according to LSEG.

Uber shares are down 12% this year as of Tuesday's close, while the Nasdaq is up 14% over that stretch.

Uber stock chart

Uber is pushing further into deliveries, and last month announced a $14.8 billion agreement to acquire Germany's Delivery Hero. That deal will increase the number of markets where Uber can deliver food and groceries.

CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in prepared remarks ahead of the earnings call that the World Cup was a boon for the ride-hail business in the quarter. More than 8 million tourists took rides across host cities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico

Uber is also continuing to make big bets on autonomous vehicles.

Read more CNBC tech newsSpaceX revenue jumps 92% and AI costs soar in first earnings report since IPONJ files antitrust suit against Amazon, alleging it unlawfully wielded power over delivery contractorsPalantir stock skyrockets on 'otherworldly' commercial revenue — here's what's driving the demandHow the 'Baby iPhone' and an Apple supplier leak explain China's recent supply chain movesThe company said it expects to commit more than $10 billion in coming years to "bring AVs to market at scale." Uber, which has been inking partnerships with robotaxi providers, doesn't break out the share of rides or deliveries that have drivers and those that don't.

"As the industry shifts from proving the technology to commercializing it at scale," Uber is building "one of the most valuable positions in the AV ecosystem," Khosrowshahi said.

However, early robotaxi partner Waymo appears to be pulling away. The companies recently said they would be ending an exclusive agreement in Atlanta and Austin, Texas, by early 2028.

Uber also announced on Wednesday that it has cleared another hurdle in offering autonomous rides in London with UK robotaxi company Wayve.

Transport for London has granted Private Hire Vehicle licences to Wayve robotaxis, confirming that the vehicles meet safety standards. Uber said more than 100,000 people have signed up to be the first riders.

"This licence is a key milestone in bringing autonomous rides to London on Uber," said Global Head of Autonomous Mobility Operations Annie Duvnjak in a statement announcing the news.

Uber has partnered with — and in some cases made direct investments in — more than 30 autonomous vehicle companies over the past two years. And it’s taking a global approach.

Here, TechCrunch tracks every one of those moves in one place. But first, a bit of history. 

Uber was, at one time, developing and testing its own autonomous vehicle (AV) technology. The company, then led by Travis Kalanick, created Uber Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) in 2014 and recruited dozens of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s robotics program. 

Two years later, Uber acquired Otto, a self-driving truck company founded by former Google self-driving engineer Anthony Levandowski, Lior Ron, Don Burnette (who has since gone on to found Kodiak AI), and Claire Delaunay. Uber also began testing its AVs on public streets in 2016 across California, Pittsburgh, and Arizona. 

All of that progress unraveled across three defining moments: Waymo’s trade secrets lawsuit against Uber, the resignation of Kalanick in 2017, and a fatal crash in Tempe, Arizona, in 2018 involving its self-driving Volvo XC90, which struck and killed a pedestrian. (The vehicle was in autonomous mode, and a human safety operator behind the wheel at the time wasn’t paying attention.) Uber suspended its testing and reorganized the program, although it never truly returned to its mission.

After Dara Khosrowshahi took the wheel at Uber, the company went through a reset. 

In 2020, Uber walked away from all of its moonshots, including autonomous vehicles, to focus on its core businesses of ride-hailing and delivery using human-driven vehicles. Uber sold Uber ATG to Aurora, Jump to Lime, and Elevate to Joby Aviation. It didn’t completely divest, though. Uber kept equity stakes in all of them.

Just two years later, Uber crept back in and started making AV deals. The deal flow picked up in earnest in 2024. Below is the full list, which TechCrunch will keep updated as Uber makes new moves.

Aurora Image Credits:Aurora Innovation Uber has been connected with Aurora since 2020 when, as mentioned above, it sold its Uber ATG unit to the company. Uber received equity in Aurora as part of that deal and still owns that stake. As of this past April, Uber, through its holding company Neben Holdings, owns 325.97 million Aurora Class A shares, representing a 19.7% Class A equity stake and 6.9% voting power, according to SEC filings. 

Uber Freight, the logistics business spun out of Uber in 2018, announced in June 2024 a multi-year collaboration with Aurora that expanded upon an existing pilot program. In May 2025, the companies said Aurora’s self-driving trucks had been completing roundtrip hauls between Dallas and Houston via the Uber Freight platform. 

Autobrains In June 2026, the companies announced plans to launch a robotaxi program in Munich, pending regulatory approval. The partnership lacks some details, such as what vehicle will be used. The companies pitched this as an OEM-agnostic model. Vehicles will be equipped with Israel-based Autobrains’ agentic AI driving system, which runs on Nvidia’s Drive Hyperion platform. The robotaxis will be available via Uber’s app. 

Avomo Avomo, a European company that was previously known as Moove Cars, is an autonomous fleet operator partner. Uber actually took a 30% stake in Avomo in 2021. 

And while Avomo might not have the same name recognition as other players, it is embedded in Uber’s AV business. For instance, it is the company responsible for managing fleet services such as vehicle cleaning, maintenance, inspections, charging, and depot operations for the Waymo-Uber partnership in Austin. Avomo also handles fleet operations for Uber as part of its robotaxi service agreement with WeRide in Madrid, which was announced in June 2026. 

Important note: don’t mistake Avomo (formerly Moove Cars), for Moove, an African company that manages Waymo’s AV fleet in Phoenix.

Avride Image Credits:Avride Avride, the Yandex spinout now under parent company Nebius Group, announced a multi-year deal with Uber in October 2024 to bring Avride’s sidewalk delivery robots and autonomous vehicles to both Uber’s delivery unit, Uber Eats, and Uber’s ride-hailing app. 

In February 2025, Uber shared in its fourth-quarter earnings that Uber Eats orders in Austin and Dallas were being delivered via autonomous sidewalk robots in partnership with Avride. Avride disclosed in fall 2025 that it had secured strategic investments and commercial commitments worth $375 million from Uber and Nebius. Neither company provided details on the investment and how much was capital. 

By the end of 2025, Avride robotaxis — built on Hyundai IONIQ 5s outfitted with Avride’s self-driving system — were available on the Uber app in Dallas. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Avride in May 2026 after identifying more than a dozen crashes and one minor injury.

As of this past June, these were not driverless and still had a human safety operator behind the wheel. 

Baidu Uber announced a multi-year strategic partnership with the Chinese tech giant in July 2025. Under the agreement, thousands of Baidu’s Apollo Go autonomous vehicles will be deployed on the Uber platform in multiple markets outside the U.S. and mainland China. Those deployments were set to start in Asia and the Middle East later in 2025, the companies said at the time.

In late 2025, Baidu said it would start testing Apollo Go robotaxis in London in the first half of 2026 through its partnership with Uber. As of June, those tests had not begun. 

Cartken  The sidewalk delivery robot company started working with Uber in 2022, announcing a partnership to deliver food in Miami, with plans to add more cities in 2023. The two companies expanded to commercial deliveries in Fairfax, Virginia that same year and, in February 2025, announced that they were delivering food in Osaka, Japan, using Cartken robots.

Cartken shifted its focus to industrial robots by summer 2025. The company said it would maintain its food and consumer last-mile delivery business, but had no plans to expand it. 

Coco A Coco robot in Santa Monica, California on August 14, 2024.Image Credits:James D. Morgan / Contributor / Getty Images In 2024, the two companies announced a partnership to use Coco’s sidewalk robots to deliver food for Uber Eats customers, starting in Los Angeles. The partnership expanded to neighborhoods in Miami in April 2025.

Cruise Uber and GM’s Cruise announced a strategic partnership in August 2024 to bring Cruise’s robotaxis onto the Uber app in 2025. That announcement was notable for Cruise, which had gone through a major overhaul, including layoffs and the resignation of its co-founders after one of its robotaxis struck a pedestrian in October 2023.

The Cruise reboot never got off the ground; in December 2024, citing high costs and mounting competition, GM pulled the plug on Cruise’s robotaxi business entirely and folded the unit into its broader engineering operations.

The partnership no longer exists because — welp — Cruise itself doesn’t, at least not as a robotaxi company. But at one time, the two companies had struck a deal.

Flytrex Uber announced in September 2025 a partnership with drone delivery company Flytrex. The partnership also included a small investment in Flytrex, although the amount was not disclosed.

Hertz  Hertz isn’t developing autonomous vehicle tech, but it’s still worth including the rental car company here. In April of this year, Uber formed strategic fleet partnerships with Hertz and its affiliated operating company Oro Mobility. 

This deal is part of Uber’s plans to launch a premium robotaxi service using Lucid vehicles equipped with Nuro’s self-driving system. Hertz has been tasked with day-to-day fleet management, including charging, maintenance, repairs, cleaning, and depot staffing. 

Lucid Image Credits:Uber Uber has put real money behind EV maker Lucid Motors. Uber announced plans in 2025 to launch a premium robotaxi service using robotaxi-ready vehicles from Lucid. Initially, Uber said it would invest $300 million into Lucid and separately buy at least 20,000 of its Lucid Gravity SUVs over six years. The vehicles will be equipped with Nuro’s self-driving system. 

In April, Uber upped its order and investment. Lucid received another $200 million from Uber, which also increased its minimum order to 35,000 vehicles. The order includes Lucid’s upcoming mid-sized platform. Uber now owns more than 11% of Lucid as part of investments it has made alongside the vehicle orders.

May Mobility  Image Credits:May Mobility The Michigan-based autonomous vehicle startup reached an agreement with Uber in May 2025 to deploy its AVs through the app by the end of that year, starting in Arlington, Texas.

Uber and May Mobility announced plans at the time to expand to other U.S. markets in 2026 and “deploy thousands of AVs” over “the next few years,” according to the startup.

As of June, Arlington, Texas, remains the only market where customers using the Uber app can hail a May Mobility vehicle. 

Mercedes In January of this year, Mercedes-Benz announced it was collaborating with Nvidia to create a robotaxi ecosystem using self-driving S-Class sedans that would be on the Uber ride-hailing platform. No specific cities have been announced.

Momenta  The Chinese autonomous driving tech company reached an agreement with Uber in May 2025 to add its robotaxis to the app, starting in Europe in early 2026, with safety operators on board.

A few months later in September 2025, the Beijing-based company and Uber said they would start testing robotaxis in Munich, Germany in 2026. 

Motional  A Hyundai Ioniq 5 powered by Motional on Uber’s network in Las VegasImage Credits:Motional Motional, a subsidiary of Hyundai, has been working with Uber in some form since 2021 when the companies announced plans to launch autonomous deliveries in Santa Monica. This was considered a pilot and never became a commercial program or used fully driverless vehicles. 

The companies expanded the partnership in October 2022 with a 10-year operating agreement that will eventually roll out to major cities across North America; Las Vegas and Los Angeles were among the first named cities. While Motional and Uber remain partners, a commercial driverless service (meaning no human safety operator behind the wheel) has yet to materialize. 

Motional went through a reboot in 2024, taking a new AI-centric approach to its self-driving system. In March 2026, Motional’s self-driving Hyundai Ioniq 5 vehicles were added to the Uber app in Las Vegas for autonomous rides to and from five areas of the city. Human safety monitors are still riding along

New Horizon New Horizon is a fleet management company involved in Uber’s agreement with Baidu to bring the Chinese company’s Apollo Go autonomous ride-hailing service to Dubai.

Nissan Nissan is part of Uber’s partnership agreement with Wayve. In March of this year, Uber announced plans to add self-driving Nissan Leaf EVs to its network in Tokyo, powered by Wayve’s tech. (See the Wayve entry below for more.)

Nuro Image Credits:Nuro The self-driving tech startup has been tied to Uber since at least 2022, but the relationship has changed. Initially, Nuro was developing a custom-built delivery vehicle designed for the roadway. Uber and Nuro announced a 10-year partnership in 2022 to launch autonomous deliveries in Mountain View, California, and Houston starting that fall. 

Nuro pivoted away from the delivery vehicle and decided to focus on licensing its self-driving tech to automakers and robotaxi operators. Uber stuck with Nuro and in 2025 announced a landmark deal to launch a premium robotaxi service using Lucid Gravity SUVs equipped with the startup’s self-driving system. 

San Francisco will be the first market. In June of this year, the companies announced the second market will be Houston. Uber has also invested in Nuro. Sources familiar with the financial terms have told TechCrunch that Uber’s total commitment to Nuro, which includes its participation in the startup’s Series E round in 2025 and future milestone-based investments, is about $500 million.

Nvidia Uber first publicly talked about Nvidia in January 2018, a different era for both companies. Uber picked Nvidia to provide AI computing for its autonomous software. With Uber’s in-house AV program sold off in 2020, that deal ended. 

Fast forward to CES 2025, when Uber said it would use Nvidia’s generative world model simulation tool, Cosmos, and cloud-based AI supercomputing platform, DGX Cloud, to support the development of AV tech. Uber didn’t share many details at the time about how it planned to use these Nvidia tools. 

In October 2025, Uber and Nvidia announced plans to use Nvidia’s Hyperion autonomous platform to accelerate Uber’s robotaxi program. As part of that announcement, Stellantis committed to delivering at least 5,000 Nvidia Drive-powered vehicles to Uber for robotaxi operations in the U.S. and internationally — one of the first automakers to do so.

In March of this year, the companies expanded the partnership and announced plans to launch a global fleet of entirely Nvidia software-driven autonomous vehicles, starting in Los Angeles and San Francisco in the first half of 2027 and scaling across 28 cities globally by 2028. The companies said the vehicles will run Nvidia’s Drive Hyperion platform and use Alpamayo, Nvidia’s family of open-source AI models, datasets, and simulation tools designed to handle complex driving situations.  

Pony.ai Image Credits:Uber / Rimac The Guangzhou, China-based company and Uber announced a partnership in May 2025 with an eye on the Middle East. The companies planned to launch a pilot that year that would make

Pony.ai’s robotaxis (with a safety operator on board) available on the Uber app.

In March 2026, Uber, Pony.ai, and Croatian company Verne announced plans to launch a commercial robotaxi service in Europe, starting in Zagreb, Croatia. Pony.ai will supply the autonomous driving system and a robotaxi called the Arcfox Alpha T5 that was developed with Chinese automaker BAIC. Verne will own and operate the fleet, and Uber will provide its vast ride-hailing network. 

Rivian  This unexpected deal, which was announced in March 2026, could be worth up to $1.25 billion for Rivian. Under the agreement, Rivian will build thousands of robotaxis based on its new R2 SUV and will be equipped with the EV maker’s self-driving system, which is still under development. 

Uber made an initial $300 million investment in Rivian and is “expected to purchase 10,000 fully autonomous R2 robotaxis” ahead of a planned rollout in San Francisco and Miami in 2028. The two companies said at the time they plan to launch the robotaxis in “25 cities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe by the end of 2031.” The fleet will be exclusively available on Uber’s network.

Serve Robotics Image Credits:Uber The sidewalk delivery robot startup is rooted in Uber, sort of. In 2020, Uber acquired on-demand delivery startup Postmates. The following year, the robotics division known as Postmates X spun out as an independent company called Serve Robotics.

Uber also invested in Serve, which went public in 2024 through a merger with a blank-check company.  

Uber Eats has used Serve Robotics’ robots for a few years in the United States. 

Starship Technologies Sidewalk delivery robot company Starship Technologies struck a deal with Uber’s delivery unit Eats in November 2025. Under the deal, Starship robots will deliver food orders via the Uber Eats app in multiple European countries in 2026 and eventually expand to the U.S. in 2027.

Stellantis The automaker announced in June 2026 a deal with self-driving startup Wayve, and Uber to jointly develop and deploy driverless robotaxis. Stellantis and Wayve, which Uber has invested in, were already working together. This deal brings all of the components together: automaker, self-driving tech, and ride-hailing network.

The companies have agreed to work together on vehicle integration, testing, and validation before Stellantis-made vehicles equipped with Wayve’s tech are deployed in the real world, and specifically across Europe and North America.

Tawasul The UAE-based Tawasul is another operator andpartnered with Uber in 2024 to provide fleet management services for Uber’s WeRide robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi. 

Torc Robotics Uber Freight, the logistics company that spun out of Uber in 2018, announced a partnership in late December with Torc Robotics, a self-driving trucks company that was acquired by Daimler in 2019. The partnership has largely focused on data.

Torc has used Uber Freight to analyze volume patterns, shippers’ networks, and other data that will help it identify the most effective lanes and most suitable commercial applications for autonomous trucking deployment.

Verne  Uber’s relationship with Verne is pretty fresh. The company, formed by Rimac Group founder Mate Rimac, reached an agreement in March 2026 to launch a commercial robotaxi service in Europe, starting in Zagreb, Croatia. Pony.ai, the third partner, is supplying the self-driving system. Verne will own and operate the fleet of vehicles made by Chinese automaker BAIC.

Uber also planned to invest in Verne, although the terms have not been disclosed. 

Volkswagen/MOIA Image Credits:MOIA/Volkswagen / Volkswagen’s subsidiary MOIA America and Uber announced plans in 2025 to launch a commercial robotaxi service using autonomous versions of Volkswagen’s electric ID. Buzz minivan. The companies said robotaxis will launch in multiple U.S. cities over the next decade. Los Angeles is the first city.

The companies, which have set up a joint facility in Los Angeles for day-to-day fleet operations, said in April 2026 that a robotaxi service would launch later in the year, with a human safety operator on board. Driverless operations are expected to begin in 2027.

Volvo Autonomous Solutions Uber Freight, which connects companies that need to ship goods with truck drivers and fleet carriers, first partnered with Volvo Autonomous Solutions in 2023. Two years later, the companies said the partnership was moving “out of the planning stage and delivering tangible results.”

Volvo’s VNL Autonomous truck, which was built with redundancies to support self-driving tech developed by Aurora Innovation, began delivering loads for Uber Freight customers between Dallas and Houston. Those routes have since expanded.

Waabi The Uber and Waabi relationship is also a deep cut. The founder and CEO, Raquel Urtasun, previously worked at Uber as chief scientist at its autonomous vehicle division, Uber ATG, which Uber sold to self-driving trucking firm Aurora Innovation in 2020.

Urtasun founded Waabi in 2021 with an initial focus on self-driving trucks. Uber was among the investors that participated in its $83.5 million Series A round. Waabi and Uber got a lot closer in 2026. In January, Waabi raised $1 billion — $750 million in a Series C round and about$250 million in milestone-based capital from Uber to support the deployment of robotaxis equipped with Waabi’s self-driving system. 

Waymo Image Credits:Waymo/Uber The Alphabet-owned company first partnered with Uber in May 2023, when it agreed to bring some of its robotaxis on the Uber platform, starting in Phoenix. The relationship in Phoenix is limited since Waymo customers can also directly hail a robotaxi using the company’s own app.

The following year, the companies announced an expansion to Austin and Atlanta, although this time the Waymo robotaxis could only be accessed via the Uber app. The Austin service launched in March 2025, followed by Atlanta by June 2025. 

The relationship has not expanded since; it has actually shrunk. The companies ended their Phoenix partnership in last month, in July. Waymo is now working to get out of its contract with Uber, which doesn’t end until May 2028.

Wayve Image Credits:Nissan The buzzy UK self-driving startup has both partnered with and received capital from Uber. In February 2026, Wayve raised $1.2 billion in a round that included returning backers Microsoft, Nvidia, and Uber. The total raise could reach $1.5 billion thanks to another $300 million from Uber contingent on deploying robotaxis, beginning in London.

In March 2026, Uber announced plans to add self-driving Nissan Leaf EVs to its network in Tokyo, powered by Wayve’s tech. A pilot has been scheduled for late 2026. Under the deal, Wayve will integrate its AI-powered, self-driving software into a Nissan Leaf, which will be available on Uber’s ride-hail network in Japan.

WeRide   Image Credits:WeRide The Chinese robotaxi company is one of Uber’s more prolific partners. It publicly disclosed the partnership in September 2024 and shared plans to bring WeRide robotaxis to the Uber platform, starting in Abu Dhabi. The service launched in December 2024 with human safety operators and went driverless in November 2025. WeRide robotaxis launched on the Uber app in Dubai in late 2025. 

Uber expanded the partnership to bring WeRide’s AVs to 15 more cities by 2030, including in Europe. In these cities, WeRide’s robotaxis will be available through the Uber app, and Uber will be responsible for fleet operations. As part of the expansion, Uber increased its investment into WeRide by $100 million. Uber has since revealed some of those cities, including Madrid and Zurich.

In February 2026, the partnership expanded again with the companies agreeing to deploy at least 1,200 robotaxis across the Middle East. The deployment, which will span Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is expected to be completed as soon as 2027.

Zoox The Amazon-owned company is an Uber latecomer. The companies announced a strategic partnership in March 2026 to deploy Zoox robotaxis on the Uber app in Las Vegas this year and in Los Angeles in 2027.

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The upcoming report from Uber Technologies (UBER - Free Report) is expected to reveal quarterly earnings of $0.83 per share, indicating an increase of 31.8% compared to the year-ago period. Analysts forecast revenues of $14.21 billion, representing an increase of 12.3% year over year.

Over the past 30 days, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been adjusted upward by 0.3% to its current level. This demonstrates the covering analysts' collective reassessment of their initial projections during this period.

Before a company reveals its earnings, it is vital to take into account any changes in earnings projections. These revisions play a pivotal role in predicting the possible reactions of investors toward the stock. Multiple empirical studies have consistently shown a strong association between trends in earnings estimates and the short-term price movements of a stock.

While investors typically rely on consensus earnings and revenue estimates to gauge how the business may have fared during the quarter, examining analysts' projections for some of the company's key metrics often helps gain a deeper insight.

Bearing this in mind, let's now explore the average estimates of specific Uber metrics that are commonly monitored and projected by Wall Street analysts.

Analysts predict that the 'Revenue- Mobility' will reach $7.62 billion. The estimate indicates a year-over-year change of +4.6%.

Analysts expect 'Revenue- Freight' to come in at $1.32 billion. The estimate indicates a change of +4.3% from the prior-year quarter.

The consensus among analysts is that 'Revenue- Delivery' will reach $5.22 billion. The estimate indicates a year-over-year change of +27.1%.

The average prediction of analysts places 'Geographic Revenue- Latin America' at $978.07 million. The estimate suggests a change of +24% year over year.

Analysts' assessment points toward 'Geographic Revenue- United States and Canada' reaching $7.38 billion. The estimate indicates a year-over-year change of +12.5%.

The combined assessment of analysts suggests that 'Geographic Revenue- Asia Pacific' will likely reach $2.02 billion. The estimate suggests a change of +43.7% year over year.

It is projected by analysts that the 'Geographic Revenue- Europe, Middle East and Africa' will reach $3.89 billion. The estimate suggests a change of -0.3% year over year.

The collective assessment of analysts points to an estimated 'Gross Bookings - Total' of $57.19 billion. Compared to the present estimate, the company reported $46.76 billion in the same quarter last year.

The consensus estimate for 'Monthly Active Platform Consumers (MAPCs)' stands at 206 . The estimate compares to the year-ago value of 180 .

Analysts forecast 'Trips' to reach 3,902 . Compared to the current estimate, the company reported 3,268 in the same quarter of the previous year.

According to the collective judgment of analysts, 'Gross Bookings - Delivery' should come in at $26.93 billion. Compared to the current estimate, the company reported $21.73 billion in the same quarter of the previous year.

Based on the collective assessment of analysts, 'Gross Bookings - Mobility' should arrive at $28.97 billion. The estimate compares to the year-ago value of $23.76 billion.

View all Key Company Metrics for Uber here>>>

Over the past month, Uber shares have recorded returns of -5.5% versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's -0.5% change. Based on its Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), UBER will likely exhibit a performance that aligns with the overall market in the upcoming period. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>> .

Uber stock price is in a free fall this year and is trading at the lowest level since April last year. It has plunged by over 35% from its highest point since September last year. This retreat has pushed its market capitalization from a record high of $206 billion to the current $134 billion. So, why is this ride-hailing stock plunging?

Uber, the biggest ride-hailing company in the world, is under intense pressure as signs emerge that its growth has stalled in the past few months.

Analysts believe that the upcoming earnings will show that its revenue grew by 12.7% in the second quarter to $14.26 billion. They also expect the upcoming numbers to show that its earnings-per-share rose from 63 to 83 cents, respectively. Uber has missed analysts' estimates in the last two consecutive quarters, meaning that this trend may continue in the upcoming earnings.

The most recent earnings report showed that Uber’s revenue rose by 14% in the first quarter to $13.2 billion, while its gross bookings soared by 25%. Its income from operations rose by 57% to $1.9 billion.

Uber stock has also dropped after the company announced a large acquisition recently. It will spend about $13.7 billion for the Delivery Hero purchase, a substantial amount since Uber ended the last quarter with over $6.1 billion in cash. It will fund the deal using cash on hand and equity.

The most recent results showed that Delivery Hero’s gross merchandise value (GMV) jumped by 9% to €49.2 billion, with its revenue soaring by 23% to €14.8 billion last year. It made an adjusted EBITDA of €903 million, while the free cash flow to €250 million.

Meanwhile, Uber stock has fallen as it explores a split from its Waymo deal. Just last week, Waymo said that it would end its exclusivity in Austin and Atlanta in January 2028. 

According to the FT, the relationship between the two sides has deteriorated as they have become direct competitors in some markets. Also, the two sides are lobbying for robotaxi legislation that would benefit their businesses at the expense of the other. A full breakup between the two companies would dent Uber’s autonomous ambitions since it already sold its in-house business in 2020.

On the positive side, Uber has become a bargain, especially for a company with such a big market share. It now trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 16, lower than the S&P 500 average of 21.

Uber chart | Source: TradingView

The weekly chart suggests that Uber shares may have more downside to go. It has slumped from a high of $101 in September last year to the current $65. It recently formed a bearish flag pattern and has moved below the lower side. 

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has formed a descending channel and has moved below the neutral level of 50. Therefore, the path of the least resistance for the stock is downwards, with the next key target to watch being at $50.

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Uber is laying off 10% of its community operations team, citing AI. Bloomberg/Getty Images Uber is cutting customer service roles — and it says artificial intelligence is the reason.

The ride-hailing company is laying off about 10% of its community operations team and asking remote employees to relocate to a city with an Uber office and work there three days a week, it said in a statement on Thursday. Bloomberg earlier reported the news.

AI presents "a massive opportunity for us to accelerate output, improve quality, and scale customer solutions at pace," Megha Yethadka, Uber's vice president of global community operations, wrote in a memo to the team on Wednesday.

"We've made some strides, but to unlock this potential, we need an effective organization to layer AI on," Yethadka wrote. "We cannot scale frontier technology on top of fragmented processes."

An Uber spokesperson said the company informed the team on Wednesday about the "structural changes we are making to simplify operations, strengthen in-person collaboration, and continue to embrace AI."

The layoffs add Uber to the list of companies that have cut jobs in the name of AI. Others this year include Block, IBM, and Snap.

Last month, Uber laid off a quarter of its human resources and recruitment staff. The cuts affected less than 1% of the company's 34,000-person global workforce and weren't connected to AI, Uber said at the time.

CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has said that Uber is slowing down hiring as it invests more in AI.

Have a tip? Contact this reporter at [email protected] or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

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Alex Bitter You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.

Alex Bitter is a senior retail reporter covering the gig economy, food, and retail. His work focuses major gig delivery and ride-hailing apps, including Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and Walmart's Spark. He is interested in everything from what it's like to work on the apps to the companies' business strategies.Some of his recent stories feature gig workers who have been deactivated on the apps, DoorDash hiring traditional employees to make deliveries, gig workers' use of bots, and gig work expanding into new professions, such as nursing.Alex has also written about Aldi's US expansion, Starbucks' turnaround efforts, and the fallout from Kraft-Heinz's budget cutting. Convenience store chain Sheetz ended its "smile policy" after his reporting.Before joining Insider in September 2020, he wrote about consumer and retail companies for S&P Global Market Intelligence. He's a graduate of the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and grew up on the Big Island.Alex lives in the Washington, DC, area, where you can find him studying ancient coins or searching for Civil War artifacts with his metal detector in his free time.Got a tip? Reach out at [email protected] or via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (808) 854-4501.

Uber ride-hailing Layoffs More Artificial Intelligence AI Artifical Intelligence Careers

Uber Technologies Inc (NYSE:UBER, XETRA:UT8) is in advanced talks to acquire German food-delivery company Delivery Hero (XETRA:DHER, OTCQX:DLVHF), according to a Bloomberg report, with the companies aiming to finalize a takeover agreement as soon as this week.

Shares of Delivery Hero (XETRA:DHER, OTCQX:DLVHF) rose almost 6% following the report, while Uber shares fell about 2%.

A potential transaction would likely value Delivery Hero above its recent trading price of around €36 per share, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg.

 Investors have been expecting a higher price after Uber previously approached the company with an offer of €33 per share.

Uber has already built a significant stake in Delivery Hero, holding 24.99% of the company’s shares and additional derivatives that bring its total economic interest to about 36.8%.

The reported acquisition discussions follow months of stake-building by Uber as the company seeks to expand its position in the global food-delivery market. A full takeover would give Uber control of one of Europe’s largest online food-delivery platforms.

Shares of Delivery Hero have added more than 71% so far this year.

Neither company has publicly confirmed that an agreement has been reached, and negotiations could still change or fail to result in a transaction.

Uber has spent the last year quietly pushing beyond the two businesses most people associate it with. There’s ride-hailing, of course, and delivery, but spend time in the app and you’ll now find hotel bookings powered by Expedia, “shop for me” concierge features, and boat rentals in Europe.

Under the hood, so to speak, there’s also a lot happening. Think debit cards for drivers, a data-labeling side hustle for these same earners looking to make more moolah, and a six-month-old, business unit called AV Labs, which is developing a fleet of sensor-equipped vehicles that’s separate from Uber’s regular driver network and designed to gather ever-larger amounts of driving data. Uber frames the initiative as a way to strengthen its relationships with autonomous vehicle partners, several of which it also holds equity in, but it sure looks like a hedge, as well. Uber competes directly with some of those same partners, with Waymo chief among them, and owning the data layer gives Uber both some leverage and optionality.

Whether Uber becomes a full-blown “everything app” similar to some Asian super-apps like Grab, remains an open question. But in this conversation, Uber Chief Product Officer Sachin Kansal walks TechCrunch through the company’s financial-services ambitions, its increasingly complicated relationship with Waymo, its new AV Labs data operation, and how AI is starting to show up in ways riders and drivers will actually notice.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

TC: You unveiled hotels, boat rentals, and more shopping features earlier this year. How did that list get made, and what didn’t make the cut?

SK: Every year our teams are obviously building a lot of stuff, and a subset of that we decide is worth sharing with the world on the biggest stage. This year the theme that we gravitated towards was really travel. 1.5 billion trips on the Uber platform every year actually happen outside of a user’s home city, so we know that travel is something that’s a very common use case for Uber users. Our headline announcement this time was actually introducing hotels on Uber as a partnership with Expedia. But travel is so much more than that — you need rides to go from the airport to the hotel, and you need food. We heard from a lot of our users that a lot of them had stopped using room service and were just using the Uber Eats app. With “shop for me,” the goal was for us to enable you to shop from any local store even if that store is not available on Uber Eats with the entire catalog. Travel really is, in my opinion, the third leg of the stool — we had rides, then we added eats, and now we are adding travel.

Is Uber moving toward offering its own financial services, the way “everything apps” in Asia do?

Financial services for us cuts across multiple different entities — consumers, but also drivers and couriers, and merchants. We have multiple products today focused mostly on drivers and couriers, where we have what we call the Uber Pro card, which they can use as a debit card and transfer all their earnings onto. We are starting to experiment with some of those products for merchants in certain parts of the world right now. As far as consumers are concerned, we’ll see if that makes sense for us in the long term. Right now there is a currency for consumers to use — we call them Uber credits — and this ties to our membership program. On hotels, for example, members get 10% cash back on a $1,000 transaction, that’s $100 back as credit that you can then use on rides and eats.

Would Uber ever offer its own buy now, pay later product?

I’m not sure, because we want to make sure that the experts do what the experts do. We already have announced partnerships with others in the industry who are already providing that service, so that at checkout you have the ability to do that. In terms of our general product strategy, we’re not trying to be everything to everyone.

With boat rentals, in Europe, tapping the tab hands users off to a partner’s own booking flow rather than checking out inside Uber. Is that handoff model a template for what’s coming?

Definitely there are some instances, especially when we are doing something new, for us to rely on our partners, because a two-way integration just does take a lot of time, and in some cases it’s good for us to try before we integrate deeply. In the case of Expedia, we decided it just makes sense to integrate deeply — we built the entire UI on our own in partnership with Expedia. But in some cases it may make sense for us to hand off the rest of the experience to the experts in that field, and if you get great traction, we can always integrate them deeply.

Your Uber One membership product now has 51 million members and accounts for roughly half of bookings. Do you have data showing the cross-sell actually works — that a delivery user later starts taking more rides?

On the delivery side, it takes you two to three orders for you to break even the monthly fee that you pay. As members get more habituated to the program, it’s increasing their frequency within the line of business they are already using. And it’s also leading to more usage of the other sides of the business — we are seeing people who are mobility only also start to use delivery, and people who are delivery only also start to use mobility.

Delivery has been one of the hardest businesses in tech to make profitable. Is Uber Eats still leaning on ride-hailing to stay healthy?

During the early years of Uber Eats it was not profitable yet, but over the last several quarters, Uber Eats has been independently a profitable business for us, and generating a lot of profit.

A story I wrote this spring framed Uber as unexpectedly competing more directly with Airbnb, which is now offering airport transfers through a partner. Do you see it that way? Who are you most focused on?

There’s no dearth of competitors — Lyft in the U.S., Didi and 99 in Latin America, Bolt, Ola around the world, and on delivery, DoorDash, Delivery Hero. But I only spend a very small percentage of my time thinking about that. The bigger percentage of my time, or what keeps me up at night, is are we providing our users all the value that we can provide.

You recently wound down the Waymo pilot in Phoenix while scaling elsewhere. How do you keep the experience coherent when you’re partnering with — and in some cities competing with — the same supplier?

Phoenix was the first city that we launched with Waymo, with about a dozen cars, but our scale launches have been in Austin and Atlanta, where we have hundreds of cars with them. When we recently looked at the Phoenix pilot, we mutually decided that it doesn’t make sense for us to continue. Waymo is an excellent partner of ours, but in many cities they’re also a competitor. We are not in the race to be an L4 autonomy provider — what we are focusing on is laying down the race tracks so we can work with multiple players. We believe in the hybrid network, human drivers as well as autonomous vehicles in the same city, because it allows us to balance demand and supply.

Regarding AV Labs, what can Uber offer autonomy partners that they don’t already have?

We are going to be equipping hundreds of cars with sensors, deployed through our fleet partners, and through that we’ll be collecting millions of miles worth of driving data. That really helps with the long-tail problem — you want to see all the edge cases, not just the P95, P99 level. Beyond the data itself, there’s so much know-how from our 10 million earners in terms of how pickups and drop-offs work. We handle 25 million lost items every single year — how do you operationally handle that in the world of autonomy? That’s the kind of operational expertise we can bring.

Is Uber selling driver and rider data to Gen AI companies?

I would divide this into two parts. In terms of Gen AI companies, we are able to label data for them using our earner base, or through audio collection, and yes, we have commercial relationships with them and we are selling it to them — that’s a part of the business that is new, and we are extremely bullish about it. AV Labs is separate, and we are still figuring those models out for sharing that data with partners. It’s a little early.

Are drivers recording conversations with riders for this data work?

No, no, no — I want to be very clear, there’s no conversation being recorded as part of that while they’re on a ride. When they’re not on a trip, they’re not driving, they’re not delivering, they’re just talking, or they’re listening to a piece of audio and transcribing it. They get paid for doing that, by the way.

Where has AI actually shown up in ways a rider or driver would notice?

If you are an earner on our platform, we have an earner assistant — the number one question on their mind is how do I make more money, and it will say, look, it’s actually pretty light in the South Bay, but you may want to go five miles away where there’s a lot of demand. On the Eats side, there’s a grocery cart assistant where you can say “I want milk, eggs, bread” and it creates the cart very quickly. And on rides, you’re able to use voice to request a ride — say “I’m looking for a ride to the airport, I have six pieces of luggage, six people.”

So a fully agentic Uber — “plan and book my whole trip” — is on the horizon?

I can’t put a date on it, and I can’t tell you exactly what the feature set will be, but I think AI is going to be a huge enabler of that, where I can leave the complexity to the platform and just tell an agent what exactly I want. Easier said than done — we want to make sure we’re not just checking a box by shipping an agent that maybe doesn’t work that well.

As CPO, how do you personally prioritize with so many ideas in flight?

I would say I spend 70% to 80% of my time making sure that our existing products, or the products we are about to launch, are as solid as possible. All the new ideas are like shiny objects — if you have 100 ideas, maybe five of them are good, and those five then need a lot of cultivation and conviction. So probably 20% of the time is on new ideas — including, by the way, I go out and drive and deliver myself, just to see our product from the other side firsthand.

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Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga said that the company is rolling out AI agents across the company using "agentic pods." Big Event Media/Getty Images for HumanX Conference Uber has a new approach to using AI: "Agentic pods."

Praveen Neppalli Naga, the ride-hailing company's tech chief, said in an X post on Tuesday that Uber embedded 30 of its "most AI-proficient engineers" with teams across the company, including finance, legal, and human resources.

Over two weeks, the engineers worked with employees in those departments, observed their work, and created AI agents to help handle tasks, Naga said. Uber has run 16 such Agentic Pods over the past two months, he said.

Many of the duties that Uber's engineers developed agents for, such as financial pacing reports, involved accessing multiple systems and performing a lot of manual work. The engineers had to work directly with the people responsible for them to understand how to recreate them with AI.

"You can't automate them effectively by looking at process diagrams or documentation," Naga said in his post. "You have to understand how the work actually gets done."

The resulting agents are saving Uber time. Those financial pacing reports can now be made in 10 minutes, down from two days, Naga said. Allocating capital across 150 cities Uber operates in, a task that used to take 15 hours, now takes 30 minutes with AI agents.

Uber's experience with pods points to a role that's become a rare bright spot amid industry layoffs. Despite job cuts, tech companies are still hiring forward-deployed engineers, Business Insider reported in May. The job often involves an engineer from an AI company working with employees at a customer firm.

Whether those efficiencies are worth it is another question.

In May, Uber's chief operating officer, Andrew Macdonald, said on a podcast that it was getting harder for the company to justify spending as much as it has on AI.

Uber, like many tech companies, has ramped up spending on AI. Naga told The Information that Uber maxed out its Claude Code budget for the year this spring. All that spending hasn't led to a similar increase in "useful" consumer features, though, Macdonald said.

Uber plans to keep using the agentic pod model, Naga said in his X post.

"We're now forming a dedicated team to scale this further and go deeper," he said.

"They'll deeply understand the work, redesign it from the ground up, and use AI to fundamentally change how the business operates," he added.

Do you have a story to share about Uber? Contact this reporter at [email protected] or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

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Alex Bitter You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.

Alex Bitter is a senior retail reporter covering the gig economy, food, and retail. His work focuses major gig delivery and ride-hailing apps, including Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and Walmart's Spark. He is interested in everything from what it's like to work on the apps to the companies' business strategies.Some of his recent stories feature gig workers who have been deactivated on the apps, DoorDash hiring traditional employees to make deliveries, gig workers' use of bots, and gig work expanding into new professions, such as nursing.Alex has also written about Aldi's US expansion, Starbucks' turnaround efforts, and the fallout from Kraft-Heinz's budget cutting. Convenience store chain Sheetz ended its "smile policy" after his reporting.Before joining Insider in September 2020, he wrote about consumer and retail companies for S&P Global Market Intelligence. He's a graduate of the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and grew up on the Big Island.Alex lives in the Washington, DC, area, where you can find him studying ancient coins or searching for Civil War artifacts with his metal detector in his free time.Got a tip? Reach out at [email protected] or via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (808) 854-4501.

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Key Takeaways Uber is expanding its robotaxi push through partnerships with WeRide and Amazon's Zoox.Uber's gross bookings rose 25% to $53.7B in Q1, topping the consensus estimate of $52.9B.Uber faces risks from elevated debt, labor unrest, geopolitical woes and weak stock performance. Uber Technologies (UBER - Free Report) is looking to establish a strong foothold in the lucrative robotaxi space through a partnership-focused approach. The global autonomous vehicle market, valued at $3.36 trillion in 2025, is expected to reach $4.44 trillion in 2026 and $41.75 trillion by 2034, at a compound annual growth rate of 32.3% during 2026-2034, according to Fortune Business Insights. 

In 2020, Uber sold the self-driving division but retained its focus on becoming the ultimate ride-hailing super app. Multiple collaborations highlight Uber’s commitment to integrating cutting-edge AV technologies into its platform. By working with third-party autonomous technology developers, the company sidesteps the heavy research and development costs required to build proprietary self-driving systems.

Uber’s dominant market share in the ride-hailing industry also gives it a unique advantage. With its vast network of drivers and customers, Uber can quickly scale autonomous services once the technology matures. Its app is designed to integrate AVs from multiple partners, giving users a variety of options.

Some Recent AV Collaborations of UberLast month, Uber, in collaboration with WeRide (WRD - Free Report) , a Chinese autonomous vehicle company, announced plans to introduce commercial robotaxi services in the Greater Zurich Region. This move represents their second joint deployment in Europe, coming just weeks after the announcement of a similar initiative in Madrid.

The service is expected to commence later this year in partnership with Switzerland’s Federal Roads Office (“FEDRO”), pending regulatory approvals. At launch, passengers will be able to access the robotaxi service through the Uber app. The launch builds on the partners’ growing track record in autonomous mobility.

Since December 2024, WeRide and Uber have introduced robotaxi services across several Middle Eastern markets, including fully driverless commercial operations in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, as well as public services in Riyadh. These deployments provide an operational foundation for their European expansion. In November 2024, WeRide obtained a driverless permit from FEDRO, allowing autonomous vehicle operations on public roads in Zurich’s Furttal region.

Earlier in the year, Uber entered into a strategic partnership with Amazon’s (AMZN - Free Report) Zoox to deploy its purpose-built robotaxis on the former’s platform. The Amazon unit’s robotaxis differ from many other autonomous vehicles currently in development because they are not modified versions of traditional passenger cars. Instead, the vehicles are purpose-built specifically for ride-hailing services and designed to enhance rider comfort and social interaction. The Amazon unit and Uber indicated that Zoox rides are expected to be available in Los Angeles next year.

Undoubtedly, Uber’s AV ambitions are commendable. Now, the question is whether it is worth buying the stock at current prices. Let us dig deeper to find out.

Further Factors Working in Favor of UBERGross Bookings Growth: Uber continues to benefit from robust growth in gross bookings. The company has been recording solid double-digit growth in gross bookings across both its mobility and delivery businesses.

Despite the crisis in the Middle East, UBER’s Mobility business saw impressive demand, with segmental revenues increasing 5% year over year on a reported basis and 1% on a constant currency basis to $8.2 billion in the first quarter of 2026. Gross bookings from the unit were highly impressive, aiding the first-quarter results. Gross bookings from the Mobility segment in the March quarter increased 20% year over year on a constant-currency basis to $26.4 billion.

Uber’s Delivery business also performed well in the quarter, with segmental revenues growing 23% year over year on a constant-currency basis. Gross bookings from the Delivery segment in the first quarter rose 23% year over year on a constant-currency basis to $26 billion. Total gross bookings jumped 25% to $53.7 billion, ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $52.9 billion.

The gross bookings forecast for the second quarter of 2026 was very impressive, highlighting the bullishness surrounding the key metric. Despite the geopolitical woes, gross bookings are projected in the range of $56.25-$57.75 billion, highlighting growth of 18% to 22% year over year on a constant-currency basis. The outlook assumes a roughly 2 percentage-point currency tailwind to total reported year-over-year growth.

Continued expansion in gross bookings strengthens Uber’s revenue base, improves operating leverage across its platform and deepens network effects among riders, drivers and merchants. This momentum not only supports revenue growth but also enhances the company’s long-term profitability potential by enabling fixed costs to be distributed more efficiently across a larger transaction base.

Commendable Expansion Efforts: Even though Uber’s primary business is ridesharing, it has diversified into food delivery and freight over time. Diversification is imperative for big companies to reduce risks and Uber has excelled in this area. As part of its expansion efforts, Uber acquired parking startup SpotHero. Following the deal, Uber has introduced a native, in-app parking reservation feature powered by SpotHero, focusing on parking options for commuters as well as at events, venues and airports. Over time, Uber One members may also receive parking-related benefits as part of their membership.

The company is looking to strengthen Uber Eats, its online food ordering and delivery platform and has inked multiple deals recently on that front. Recently, Uber announced the inclusion of multiple new retailers to the Uber Eats marketplace, aimed at expanding its retail selection availability for on-demand delivery. Uber Eats is expanding beyond its patent food delivery business and offering a vast marketplace which covers everyday needs such as skincare, shipping supplies, art materials, sporting goods and pet supplies.

Earnings History: Uber’s earnings have outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the past four quarters, missing the mark on the other occasion. The average beat is 89.6%.

Growth Opportunity for UBER Is Real, But So Are the RisksWhile Uber is benefiting from its AV-related ambitions and gross booking strength, investors should remember that it is facing some headwinds that cannot be ignored.

UBER’s financial metrics indicate that its leverage is elevated and is a massive negative for its shareholders. The long-term debt burden of the company stood at $10.5 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2026, which translates into a long-term debt-to-capitalization of 29.4%, which is reasonable but above the sub-industry’s 9.5%. UBER’s times interest earned ratio at the March quarter-end was 12.1, which is much lower than its industry, indicating a high risk of default.

Shares of Uber have declined in double digits (% wise) over the past six months, underperforming the Zacks Internet-Services industry as well as the S&P 500 index.

6-Month Price ComparisonImage Source: Zacks Investment Research

Apart from the regulatory headwinds, highlighted by labor unrest, the geopolitical woes have the potential to hurt Uber’s operations.

What Do Estimates Suggest for Uber?The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 implies a year-over-year decline of approximately 44% in EPS, while 11% growth is indicated in terms of revenues. Moreover, the earnings estimate revision trend is mixed. While full-year 2026 estimates have moved lower over the past 60 days, projections for the current and next quarter and full-year 2027 have improved.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

How to Play UBER Stock Currently?While Uber’s weak stock performance, high debt load, labor unrest and geopolitical woes present near-term challenges, the outlook for the ride-hailing giant remains far from discouraging.

The company’s strategic diversification, AV focus and shareholder-focused initiatives continue to serve as key strengths. With a market capitalization of $146.89 billion, Uber remains well positioned to navigate economic uncertainties. Uber’s ongoing commitment to diversification — through acquisitions, geographic expansion and innovative product offerings — has helped reduce risks and reinforce its competitive standing.

Overall, Uber’s scale, strategic investments and diversification efforts provide a strong foundation for sustained long-term growth. Despite the recent unfavorable price performance, maintaining a position in this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock appears to be a sensible approach for now, while potential investors may prefer to wait for a more attractive entry point.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.  

Waymo robotaxis are no longer available on Uber’s ride-hail app in Phoenix, Arizona, ending a nearly three-year partnership in the city, both companies confirmed to TechCrunch on Monday.

Uber said it is readying the launch of a separate autonomous vehicle partnership in the city, but did not name the partner. Waymo told TechCrunch that the vehicles Uber used for this “pilot” program have already been integrated into its own Phoenix fleet, available through its app. Waymo users started noticing that the company’s vehicles were absent from Uber’s network in recent days. Waymo’s vehicles are still available on Uber in Austin and Atlanta, for instance.

The quiet end to this partnership in Phoenix, which Waymo said happened in May, comes as the Alphabet-owned company is starting to put its newest robotaxis — the Zeekr-made van it calls Ojai — on the road. It’s also happening as the Uber-Waymo relationship appears to be wearing in some places, with the two companies poised to directly compete against each other in London as early as this year.

Still, both companies praised the collaboration in Phoenix as a successful jumping-off point for their respective robotaxi plans, which have gotten increasingly ambitious since 2023.

“This was a productive pilot that paved the way for future expansions and partnerships across the globe. After hundreds of thousands of trips with Uber, we have integrated these vehicles back into our Phoenix fleet, where they will continue to serve riders through Waymo, including our public transit integration with Via, and delivery with DoorDash,” Waymo told TechCrunch. “We’re grateful to all of the Uber customers who took fully autonomous trips with us, and we look forward to continuing to serve the Phoenix community.”

“Phoenix was our first pilot market with Waymo and was an intentionally limited deployment, reaching just over a dozen vehicles dedicated to the program. We learned a lot from that collaboration, which helped us to quickly scale Austin and Atlanta, where hundreds of Waymo AVs are available exclusively on Uber and our coverage area continues to expand,” Uber said.

The robotaxi landscape looks much different than it did when these two companies kicked off this collaboration in 2023. Back when it was first announced, the idea of Uber and Waymo partnering up still seemed unlikely given their messy legal battle that ended in a settlement in 2018. Robotaxis as a technology were in a far more uncertain place, as no operator had reached scale yet. Cruise was still seen as a viable competitor, as it had not yet gone through its own scandal and been absorbed into General Motors.

In the three years since, Waymo has grown its fleet to around 4,000 vehicles, and Uber has inked deals to add dozens of autonomous vehicle partners to its network.

This Phoenix partnership remained an unusual one, as it was the only city where Waymo operated directly and through Uber. Waymo is in the process of launching in around 20 new cities this year, is operating in 11 major U.S. metro areas, and the company offers more than 500,000 trips every week.

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Sean O’Kane is a reporter who has spent a decade covering the rapidly-evolving business and technology of the transportation industry, including Tesla and the many startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, he was a reporter at Bloomberg News where he helped break stories about some of the most notorious EV SPAC flops. He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted many short- and long-form videos, performed product and editorial photography, and once nearly passed out in a Red Bull Air Race plane.

You can contact or verify outreach from Sean by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at okane.01 on Signal.

Uber Technologies UBER shares are ripping higher on Wednesday morning after the ride-hailing giant confirmed it has added five major, diverse brands to its on-demand Uber Eats marketplace.

As investors cheered the announcement, UBER broke above its key moving averages (20-day, 50-day, and 100-day), indicating bulls are beginning to take back control across multiple timeframes.

Despite today’s rally, Uber stock remains down nearly 10% versus the start of this year (2026).

Uber has added five prominent, high-profile brands to its on-demand marketplace, significantly broadening its reach beyond traditional restaurant and grocery delivery, including FedEx Office, Kiehl’s, Academy Sports + Outdoors, Blick Art Materials, and Choice Pet.

This multi-vertical rollout deepens UBER’s “high-margin” retail delivery segment and builds on its partnerships with Home Depot, Sephora, and Best Buy.

Uber shares are extending gains because this expansion shifts users from transactional food ordering to lower-churn, recurring Uber One memberships.

Note that UBER’s relative strength index (RSI) sits in the early 50s currently, indicating significant room to the upside before the stock climbs into the “overbought” territory.

Uber Technicals Wall Street values this because it shifts users from transactional food ordering to lower-churn, recurring Uber One memberships, expanding their non-restaurant retail scale.

Heading into Jun. 24, UBER stock was trading at a rather compelling 2.8x sales, weighed down by structural operating costs and competitive concerns surrounding Waymo’s scale-up in the autonomous vehicle (AV) space.

Capital is flowing back into the equity today also because it was trading just a few percentage points above its 52-week low – signaling an attractive valuation cushion.

Analysts at Wall Street firms like Tigress Financial have recently flagged Uber Technologies Inc as “undervalued”, maintaining a $115 price target that suggests potential upside of more than 50% from current levels.

With gross bookings projected to hit at least $56.25 billion in Q2, institutional investors are using today’s retail news as a technical trigger to step in and buy the dip – banking on Uber's robust free cash flow growth.

All in all, the announced marketplace expansion gives UBER shares exactly what they needed to turn the narrative around: a tangible growth catalyst that rewards patient investors.

By successfully leveraging its massive logistics engine to capture steady, high-margin retail spend, Uber is proving it can grow its profitable Uber One subscriber base even while facing long-term autonomous vehicle pressures.

Crucially, technicians and institutional dip-buyers are clearly liking what they see today.

If Uber’s upcoming Q2 numbers can validate the margin-expansion thesis and keep gross bookings on track, today’s technical breakout could easily be the first leg of a sustained summer recovery.

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Uber is the largest shareholder in Lime heading into its IPO. Bloomberg/Getty Images Uber has a lot riding on scooters.

The ride-hailing company, which was an early investor in scooter rental business Lime, is the company's largest shareholder, according to a prospectus detailing plans for an initial public offering that Lime filed on Monday. Uber owns about 14 million shares, or a 24% stake ahead of the IPO, according to the S-1 securities filing.

Uber's stake would be worth about $350 million if Lime prices its IPO at $25 a share, the midpoint of the $24 to $26 target range the company shared in its filing.

Lime said Uber has shown interest in buying up to $20 million in additional Lime common stock as part of the IPO, according to the prospectus.

Uber did not respond to a request for comment.

Precisely how much Uber stands to make on its Lime investment remains to be seen. The companies have not publicly shared how much Uber has invested in Lime over the years. Lime could revise its planned price per share before it goes public. Uber also faces restrictions on how many shares of Lime stock it can sell over the next two years — and thus how much it can cash out — as part of the IPO terms.

Lime and Uber go way back. Wayne Ting, Lime's CEO, previously served as chief of staff to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Uber also invested in some of Lime's fundraising rounds, including leading a $170 million round announced in May 2020.

Many Lime users find a scooter or bike to ride through Uber's app. Such trips accounted for about 14% of Lime's revenue in 2025, according to the prospectus.

That relationship has helped Lime acquire new customers. "By leveraging Uber's existing infrastructure and rider network, we tap into an existing rider base that can drive awareness without upfront marketing costs," Lime wrote in the filing.

The relationship between Lime and Uber might serve as a model. Uber has struck partnerships with around a dozen self-driving car providers over the past few years, from Waymo in the US to Baidu in Asia and the Middle East.

Uber, which already has millions of riders signed up to use its app, can match those robotaxi services with riders, Khosrowshahi has said.

"I do think the aggregator model certainly would be helpful for all of those companies to succeed," he told the "Stratechery" podcast last year.

Do you have a story to share about Lime or Uber? Contact this reporter at [email protected] or via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

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Alex Bitter You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.

Alex Bitter is a senior retail reporter covering the gig economy, food, and retail. His work focuses major gig delivery and ride-hailing apps, including Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and Walmart's Spark. He is interested in everything from what it's like to work on the apps to the companies' business strategies.Some of his recent stories feature gig workers who have been deactivated on the apps, DoorDash hiring traditional employees to make deliveries, gig workers' use of bots, and gig work expanding into new professions, such as nursing.Alex has also written about Aldi's US expansion, Starbucks' turnaround efforts, and the fallout from Kraft-Heinz's budget cutting. Convenience store chain Sheetz ended its "smile policy" after his reporting.Before joining Insider in September 2020, he wrote about consumer and retail companies for S&P Global Market Intelligence. He's a graduate of the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and grew up on the Big Island.Alex lives in the Washington, DC, area, where you can find him studying ancient coins or searching for Civil War artifacts with his metal detector in his free time.Got a tip? Reach out at [email protected] or via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (808) 854-4501.

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