The future of Uber will to be greener, more affordable and capable of challenging Amazon at its own speed-delivery game, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi predicted while on stage this week at SXSW.
His vision, which he outlined during an interview with Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, isn’t entirely new. The company pledged in 2020 that all of its travel in the United States and Europe would be zero-emission by the end of the decade. To achieve this, Uber needs to make it easier and cheaper for drivers to access electric vehicles. And Uber has long discussed making its app so “sticky” that consumers regularly visit it for rides and deliveries.
Those goals seem a little more attainable — and higher on the priority list — now that Uber has finally nailed the profitability framework. In 2023, Uber posted full-year earnings as a public company. And Khosrowshahi seems eager to accelerate.
The sustainability goal, which he described as the company’s single most important long-term initiative, tops that list.
While “sustainability” is a favorite buzzword for companies to talk about, Uber has set goals and earmarked $800 million to help drivers use electric vehicles. For example, Uber has partnered with automakers Tesla, Kia and GM), as well as rental companies Hertz, Avis and Ford to offer discounts on affordable EVs. The company rolled out in-app features to ease charging stress and partnered with startup Revel to offer drivers discounts that charge up to 25% and access to up to 250 charging stations. Uber has also partnered with bpPulse and EVgo to offer charging discounts and has invested £5 million to build charging infrastructure in three London boroughs.
Efforts have moved the needle. The company said that as of last year, more than 126,000 monthly active drivers of zero-emission vehicles were using the app. Drivers have completed 287 million all-electric trips over the past three years, according to Uber. The largest percentage, at 20%, was in London.
Uber, in conjunction with Khosrowshahi’s SXSW appearance, announced a new emission saving mode which allows riders to track and understand their estimated carbon impact. Uber said emissions are calculated based on Uber Green and Uber Comfort Electric trips and the amount of CO2 emissions avoided compared to UberX or Uber Comfort trips over the same distance.
Riders can go to their account section of the Uber app to access the “estimated CO2 savings” feature, which shows all the emissions saved by taking Uber Green and Uber Comfort electric rides.
Uber announced this week that it is launching Uber Green and Uber Comfort Electric for teen riders in more than 15 cities, including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Austin and Seattle.
Accessibility
Khosrowshahi also said affordability is a big deal for Uber.
“At this point, Uber is, you know, call it the middle-class type of product or the high-end type of product, and we need to make Uber more accessible to consumers,” he said, adding that this can be achieved by changing the “factor form’, such as using electric scooters and getting people to share rides.
“It takes a lot to convince someone to share a vehicle with another person,” he said.
Much of the common path’s progress has taken place outside the United States. He said UberX’s shared, high-capacity vehicles that can carry 14 to 22 people (essentially an Uber bus) and operate in many developing countries are “an important part of our path forward.”
“There’s a certain percentage of consumers who are willing to give up a little bit of the convenience of a ride with someone else in the car to save money, and we really need to push that because we want to make Uber more accessible to many, many more people around the world.” , he added.
Excellent Amazon
Khosrowshahi’s biggest ambitions may be for Uber Eats, which has helped grow the company’s revenue and is one of the fastest-growing parts of the business.
“The future isn’t just about delivering food to your home, it’s about delivering anything to your home,” he said. “We basically want to create a local on-demand logistics infrastructure that’s available for people to go from place to place, for people to send packages to each other, and for businesses to be able to leave Amazon Amazon,” he said. . “We want the local business to be able to get you a package not the next day, but the same day.”
Uber started with restaurants and then expanded to grocery and beverage chains. Ultimately, Khosrowshahi wants every local merchant in a customer’s city to use Uber for delivery.
Autonomy will be part of that future, he said.
“Autonomous will be a big part of that, but first we have to achieve the sustainability goal. secondly we must take [to] communal; Third, we need to have access to everyone, no matter where you live,” he said, adding that they also want access to local merchants. “And then eventually we’ll get to an autonomous vehicle.”
Uber is no longer developing autonomous vehicle technology. which ended when Uber sold ATG to Aurora in 2020. Under the terms of that deal, Uber surrendered its equity in ATG and invested $400 million in Aurora, which will give it a 26% stake in the combined company. Since then, Uber has partnered with autonomous curbside delivery companies Cartken and Serve Robotics and robotaxi companies Waymo and Motional.
