- Uber reported strong quarterly results and highlighted its autonomous vehicle plans in a Wednesday earnings call. However, the company's stock slipped due to the strong U.S. dollar.
Uber celebrated a strong quarter and talked up its position in the autonomous vehicles market in Wednesday's earnings call—but was rewarded with a stock slip of more than 7%.
That's largely because the ride-hailing company suspects it'll take a hit from the strong U.S. dollar, which is weighing on its forecast for the current quarter.
The company also reported a lower-than-expected profit in the October-December period due to rising costs. However, Uber beat fourth-quarter revenue targets and benefited from a 50% surge in bookings for its Uber for Business service over the last three months of 2024—potentially boosted by the increasing popularity of RTO mandates.
Wedbush analysts, led by Scott Devitt, said in a note: "Uber delivered healthy results in 4Q, but the setup for 1Q is more challenging given FX headwinds, the lapping of leap day, and recent weather events in the US."
Uber’s gross bookings for the quarter were $44.1 billion, reflecting 18% year-over-year growth and 21% year over year on a constant currency basis, the company said in its earnings report.
"Impressively, Uber’s engagement level is now twice as great as Lyft’s," Morningstar analyst Mark Giarelli noted. "All these network effect metrics show that the virtuous cycle is intact and solidify Uber’s place as the premier demand aggregator in the ride-hailing market."
JPMorgan analysts also said they remained positive about Uber's execution against its growth initiatives, in a note reviewed by Fortune.
Uber "well-positioned" as the autonomous-vehicle competition heats up
Chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi was eager to focus on Uber's autonomous-vehicle plans during Wednesday's call.
The chief executive said the company was "very well-positioned" and investing in supply amid the increasingly competitive market. Khosrowshahi said he was “more confident than ever that Uber is uniquely positioned to capture the $1 [trillion-]plus opportunity” tied to autonomous vehicles, per the Financial Times.
Uber could face its biggest challenge in the market from Tesla's upcoming autonomous vehicle offering, the Cybercab, or robo-taxi, unveiled in October last year. Tesla plans to begin trialing the Cybercab in Austin in June of this year.
Uber has adopted a different approach toward its AV push than Tesla's hardware focus.
The company has pulled back on efforts to develop its own autonomous-driving tech, notably selling its Advanced Technologies Group to Aurora in 2020, and has shifted focus to partnering with autonomous vehicle startups like Cruise and Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving taxi subsidiary. Cruise will be shut down by the first half of next year, but Waymo is still expanding through U.S. cities, partly through its partnership with the Uber app.
Uber customers in Austin and Atlanta are expected to get access to self-driving cabs via Waymo this year. The company is also partnering with AI companies globally, including Chinese autonomous vehicle company WeRide and U.K.-based embodied-AI startup Wayve.
Fleets of autonomous vehicles have the potential to significantly lower costs for ride-hailing companies like Uber and their customers—but these potential savings are still a long way off, Paul Miller, VP and principal analyst at Forrester, told Fortune.
“Uber has partnerships with a growing set of companies building pieces of the autonomous vehicle technology stack," Miller said. “Uber is not earning much money from autonomous vehicles today, but the company is building partnerships in the hope that it will be well-placed to grow quickly once the technology, the regulators, and the customers are ready."
While autonomous cabs are being trialed in some cities across the U.S., they are still facing regulatory hurdles. Driverless taxis sit in the top band of the autonomous driving scale, which means they must pass rigorous safety checks before being deployed.
Representatives for Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune.
