The CEOs of two of the largest ride-hailing platforms in the U.S. see significant potential to attract more customers and generate additional revenues from autonomous vehicles. During a conference call celebrating third-quarter earnings last week, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and Lyft CEO David Risher answered numerous questions about robotaxi expansion plans, writes businessinsider.de.
Both companies have partnered with Waymo (a company involved in the development of autonomous cars), as well as other companies, to implement autonomous vehicles in their fleets in the near future.
However, it should not surprise anyone that the CEOs of companies whose business model is based on a large network of drivers claim that the future of transport services will be hybrid for some time.
“In the near future, it's going to be really, really hard to meet demand solely with autonomous vehicles,” the Lyft CEO said. “There just isn't enough supply in the world.”
He added that drivers are sharing their own cars, and that's one less resource Lyft has to provide.
See also: Taxi corporations join forces. A big acquisition on the Polish market
Giants are focusing on autonomous vehicles
Meanwhile, Uber is solving the robotaxi delivery problem through partnerships. The company has partnered with Stellantis to add at least 5,000 robotaxis to its global fleet. It has also partnered with Lucid and Nuro to implement 20k. robotaxis in the next six years.
Still, this would be just a drop in the ocean compared to the number of vehicles that could potentially be used by the 9.4 million drivers and couriers around the world using the Uber platform.
See also: Uber's CEO predicts the future. He compares driving a car to riding a horse
Driverless cars are driving the market
The availability of robotaxis in the US is limited to a few cities. Both CEOs said that in areas with active autonomous vehicles, overall demand is growing faster than in areas without autonomous taxis.
“In markets where autonomous vehicles are being deployed, shared rides (like Uber and Lyft offer, which connect customers with drivers) are growing faster than in markets where autonomous vehicles are not being used,” Risher said.
There is also the potential for complementary effects: for example, drivers could take over longer routes.
“Preliminary results suggest that autonomous vehicle rides increase overall market demand. Ultimately, they help reduce reliance on private vehicle rides in a severely underserved transportation market,” Lyft spokesman CJ Macklin explained to business insider.
Robo-taxi is a big investment
Both CEOs agree that autonomous vehicles represent a huge investment. And achieving overall profitability may still be a long way off.
“Autonomous driving is not viable,” Khosrowshahi said. “And every new product we bring to market starts out where we're losing money and unprofitable.”
Source: businessinsider.de
