IMO calling themselves a Tech company shouldnāt exempt them from the employment regulations etc. all the other taxi companies have to adhere to. It should be a level playing field. (I get that many taxi drivers are self employed, but as far as I can see Uber give their drivers the disadvantages of self employment without the advantages)
Uber was supposed to be all about the next, especially, Level 5 (full-autonomous) driving. That must have driven the valuation at some point. The co-founder mentioned it a reason dāetre in a few interviews. They acquired a self driving truck company. Overall, Travis had a different vision versus the current CEO.
Once a company has a fully-autonomous fleet, they can keep 100% of what they charge the riders. That was the plan then. Unfortunately, they had a bad accident during testing. Plus, it appears that currently fully autonomous driving is not here yet + Waymo and all are all working on the same tech. Even Lyft.
Then this happened:
And this:
Now they are chasing growth and revenue, while looking at ways to cut costs. Welcome to the world of being a public company.
So, instead of self-driving trucking, they are chasing trucking:
[Edit: thatās roughly how much they were reportedly burning per year to have SEAsia operations, before leaving the region and taking a stake in a competitor Grab instead]
ā¦
Hereās an interview with the ousted co-founder from 2016:
Biz Carson: You called the development of autonomous vehicles existential to the company, and youāve also called buying Otto another existential move. So what is so existential about it and where is that threat really coming from?
Kalanick: I think it starts with understanding that the world is going to go self-driving and autonomous. ā¦ Once you go, āAll right, thereās a lot of upsides thereā and you have folks like the folks in Mountain View, [California,] a few different companies working hard on this problem, this thing is going to happen.
So if thatās happening, what would happen if we werenāt a part of that future? If we werenāt part of the autonomy thing? Then the future passes us by, basically, in a very expeditious and efficient way.
Carson: How soon will self-driving cars realistically be a significant portion of Uberās fleet?
Kalanick: That is the trillion-dollar question, and I wish I had an answer for you on that one, but I donāt. What I know is that I canāt be wrong. Right? I have to make sure that Iām ready when itās ready or that Iām making it ready. So, I have to be tied for first at the least.
Source - Uber CEO Travis Kalanick Discusses Self-Driving Cars in Interview
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Meanwhile, Level 5 is still on:
I have seen one of their trucks bearing W logos. Not sure if it was being driven by a human, but it was definitely real.
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