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Tag: Dara Khosrowshahi

  • Uber Wants To Be an AI Company Too

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    On top of its sprawling ride-share and delivery service empire, Uber now also wants to be an AI company.

    The company’s third quarter earnings call on Tuesday morning was evidence of this, as Uber executives shared all the ways that they were hoping to drive earnings growth for the company. Two of the five core strategic areas that executives will be focusing on are AI-related.

    The first one is a recently announced pilot program that allows the drivers and couriers using the app to make a couple extra bucks by training AI models. Uber users will now be able to complete and get compensated for micro-tasks like uploading photos, annotating security footage, recording themselves speaking in their native language, submitting documents, or judging responses. The feature is called “Digital Tasks” and is currently only available to drivers and couriers in India and the United States, but executives plan to expand the user base, hoping even to attract users beyond current Uber drivers and couriers.

    “Some of the roles require PhDs, for example, in physics, in order to get the gig done, so to speak,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in the earnings call.

    The initiative is a part of Uber AI Solutions, the company’s AI data services business. Khosrowshahi said that the business is “landing a ton of customers.”

    It might seem like an odd pivot for a transportation and logistics focused tech platform, but it is all a part of the company’s main goal of making Uber an everything app for both transportation and “flexible” work.

    “Another way of looking at our platform is that we’re a platform for work, and the first kind of work that we have gone after is transportation. But we can empower other kinds of work as well, which is what Uber AI Solutions is all about,” Khosrowshahi said.

    The second way that Uber is hoping to use AI to drive earnings is through autonomous vehicles and it has everything to do with Uber’s ambitions to be an everything app for transportation. Uber wants to integrate “human drivers and autonomous vehicles into a single marketplace,” Khosrowshahi said.

    As a result, Uber is going all-in on robotaxis. Last week, the company announced that it will be partnering with Nvidia to build a fleet of 100,000 robotaxis, that will start its build-out in 2027.

    In the earnings call, Khosrowshahi admitted that autonomous vehicles are not yet profitable, and likely won’t be for at least a few more years.

    Beyond the issue of a lag in profitability, robotaxis are also riddled with safety concerns. Just last week, a beloved bodega cat in San Francisco was killed after being hit by a vehicle belonging to the robotaxi giant Waymo. The incident caused public outrage and pushed a city supervisor to call for legislation that would allow counties to be able to ban autonomous vehicles.

    The timing for that couldn’t have been worse for Uber, which just last week announced that it would begin testing robotaxis in San Francisco in partnership with electric vehicle company Lucid Motors and autonomous vehicle maker Nuro.

    But despite all that, the Uber chief was still optimistic about the technology’s future. He suggested that ten years from now, “every single new car sold” will have autonomous abilities.

    “That is a very bright future for the world, because it will make the world safer,” he said.

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    Ece Yildirim

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  • Pete Buttigieg Admits Biden Administration Should’ve Done More To Grow Autonomous Vehicles — Says DOGE-Like Department ‘Makes Tons Of Sense’

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    Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below.

    Biden-era Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says that the Biden administration could’ve done more to drive growth in the adoption of autonomous vehicles in the U.S.

    “We’re at the point where at least some of these technologies, right now, already, are safer than human beings and that’s only gonna increase and improve,” Buttigieg said during an appearance on the All In Podcast on Thursday, adding that the technology had the potential to “save a huge number of lives.”

    Buttigieg also outlined the differences in safety regulations between aviation and road safety, noting that hundreds of people lose their lives on the road daily in car crashes driven by human drivers. “It’s enough to fill a 737 every day,” Buttigieg said. “Are there things we could, or should have done, to accelerate AV adoption? I think the answer is yes,” Buttigieg said.

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    Sharing his insight into the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Buttigieg said that it made “tons of sense” in theory. “I would love, in theory, a Department of Government Efficiency that was actually about government efficiency,” Buttigieg said.

    He added that an ideal DOGE could do a lot of good, but “the DOGE we got, sent an email to every air traffic controller in the country, during an air traffic controller shortage, and suggested they quit being an air traffic controller, and get something “more productive” to do in the private sector,” Buttigieg said, criticizing the Elon Musk-led department that was tasked with cutting down excess federal spending.

    See Also: Missed Nvidia and Tesla? RAD Intel Could Be the Next AI Powerhouse — Invest Now at Just $0.81 a Share

    Recently, Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE:UBER) CEO Dara Khosrowshahi predicted that most vehicles would be autonomous in 20+ years, comparing driving to “horseback riding” in the future. He also added that human drivers would become less safe than robots as autonomous driving technologies evolve with time.

    Khosrowshahi’s comments come amid a partnership with chipmaker Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA), which would target deploying over 100,000 autonomous vehicles by 2027 on Uber’s platform. The vehicles would be powered by Nvidia’s autonomous driving stack, which includes both hardware and software capabilities.

    Meanwhile, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is slated to begin production of the Cybercab as the EV giant posted multiple job listings on its official website detailing open positions at the company’s Gigafactory in Texas for the Cybercab’s production.

    The Cybercab could also feature a steering wheel and pedals like traditional vehicles, something which wasn’t initially in the plans for Tesla, following comments by Board Chair Robyn Denholm that the company could add them to the vehicle to comply with safety regulations.

    Elsewhere, Alphabet Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) autonomous vehicle arm Waymo CEO Tekedra Mawakana called for transparency in the autonomous vehicle sector, noting that companies that weren’t transparent were not doing enough to make roads safer.

    Photo courtesy: Rich Koele on Shutterstock.com

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    This article Pete Buttigieg Admits Biden Administration Should’ve Done More To Grow Autonomous Vehicles — Says DOGE-Like Department ‘Makes Tons Of Sense’ originally appeared on Benzinga.com

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  • Uber Launches Program to Let Drivers Train A.I. Models In Their Downtime

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    A new digital tasks program will be piloted for U.S. Uber drivers this year. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

    The life of an Uber driver often involves stretches of downtime—waiting on ride requests or charging an electric vehicle’s battery. To make the most of those idle moments, Uber is launching a pilot program that allows drivers and couriers to make extra money by completing digital tasks that train A.I. models for Uber’s enterprise clients.

    “Drivers have asked for more ways to earn, even when they’re not on the road,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement. To address this request, drivers will soon be able to opt in for quick, in-app tasks ranging from uploading documents—such as restaurant menus or receipts—to providing everyday images and recording audio samples.

    The pilot will launch later this fall as part of Uber’s AI Solutions Group, a division created last November to offer data-labeling services to other businesses. Its client list includes Aurora, a self-driving software developer; Niantic, the company behind Pokémon Go; and Luma AI, a text-to-video generator. Until now, Uber AI Solutions has relied on independent gig workers to complete data-labeling tasks. The new program shifts those assignments to Uber’s own network of drivers and couriers, giving them access to additional income streams directly through the Driver app.

    In addition to the upcoming U.S. launch, Uber has already been testing the initiative in more than 12 cities in India. “Until now, these tasks were completed by independent contractors outside the app,” said Megha Yethadka, the global head of Uber AI Solutions, in a September LinkedIn post describing the Indian pilot as “very promising.”

    Before accepting a task, drivers will be able to see the expected pay rate and estimated completion time. They can only take on digital tasks while not actively signed in to drive or deliver for Uber.

    While data-labeling is a relatively new area for Uber, it’s long been a critical part of A.I. development. One of the largest players in the space is Scale AI, which was valued at $29 billion earlier this year following a $14 billion investment from Meta. Other players include Surge AI, which counts Anthropic and Microsoft amongst its clients, and in-house data-labelling initiatives run by model developers like xAI.

    Khosrowshahi first discussed Uber’s plans to introduce digital tasks at the Bloomberg Tech Summit in June, where he laid out a strategy to expand income opportunities of drivers and couriers over the next five to ten years. He described the data-labeling effort as a form of “knowledge work” emerging from the A.I. era and a way to provide new job options even as automation and autonomous vehicles threaten traditional driving roles.

    Uber announced the digital tasks initiative yesterday (Oct. 16) during its annual Only on Uber event, which highlights new features inspired by driver and courier feedback. Other updates unveiled at the event included a new heat map tool showing demand hotspots, a rider rating filter that allows drivers to screen trip requests, and a delayed-ride guarantee offering extra pay when trips take longer than estimated.

    Uber also announced an expansion of its women rider preference feature, which lets female drivers accept rides only from women passengers—a setting that has been used for more than 150 million trips and is activated weekly by one in four female drivers.

    Uber Launches Program to Let Drivers Train A.I. Models In Their Downtime

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    Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

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  • Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Bets on Autonomous Cars to Revive Slowing EV Market

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    Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says autonomous cars will act as a “catalyst” for EV adoption as Uber expands its global self-driving footprint. Photo by Riccardo Savi/Getty Images for Concordia Annual Summit

    The once-booming U.S. market for electric vehicles is slowing, but Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi isn’t fazed. Speaking today (Sept. 23) at the Concordia Summit in New York, he said Uber’s push into self-driving cars could act as a “catalyst” for EV adoption.

    Beyond safety and affordability, autonomous vehicles (AVs) offer another key advantage: sustainability. “The other really positive factor with AVs is that AVs are, by nature, also electric,” said Khosrowshahi, who pointed to Uber’s growing autonomous footprint in the U.S. as a way to help revive the country’s flailing EV transition.

    Uber, led by Khosrowshahi since 2017, currently offers AV rides in Austin, Atlanta and Phoenix through a partnership with Alphabet’s Waymo. Abroad, the company has teamed up with China-based WeRide to provide autonomous rides overseen by human safety drivers in Middle Eastern cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

    That footprint is set to expand. Later this year, Uber plans to launch in Germany and unveil new projects across Asia, Khosrowshahi said, noting the company now works with about 20 AV partners worldwide. “Autonomous is happening now, and it’s expanding all over the world.”

    A supportive regulatory framework is crucial when selecting AV markets, according to Khosrowshahi, who emphasized that robot drivers are five times safer than humans. “They don’t get distracted, they’re not texting, and most of these AV models will have driven over 1,000 times the miles that you and I will ever drive,” he said.

    Launching in regions where Uber has a strong presence is another advantage. Adding AV services to an existing network makes operations more efficient and helps offset high costs—self-driving cars can run well over $100,000 each. “You want these vehicles as highly utilized as possible,” noted Khosrowshahi.

    Over time, AVs are expected to lower fares, which could fuel demand. To avoid worsening congestion, Khosrowshahi envisions a future dominated by shared autonomous rides carrying multiple passengers, which he called a “newer development” in the field. That’s why Uber has been investing in services like UberX Share, which lets riders split trips and costs, he said.

    While AVs have been in development for decades, advances in A.I. have pushed the technology into new territory. Earlier generations of self-driving cars were largely deterministic. With the advent of large language models, modern systems can now handle complex real-world driving by learning through observation in more human-like ways. After years of research, they are “finally ready for prime time,” Khosrowshahi said. “The rate of acceleration in terms of the development of the technology, the safety of the technology, is pretty extraordinary.”

    Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Bets on Autonomous Cars to Revive Slowing EV Market

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    Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

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  • Uber CEO: Robotaxis Will Take Over Drivers’ Jobs Soon | Entrepreneur

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    Rideshare driving was the most-searched side hustle last year, garnering nearly 31,000 monthly Google searches, per a Creative Fabrica study. More than seven million people drive or deliver with Uber alone every month.

    However, there might only be a decade left to make any money through the gig.

    Earlier this month, at an “All-In” podcast event, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi acknowledged that right now, there is still growth, but that work could dry up soon due to robotaxis and autonomous vehicles.

    Related: Uber Released Its Annual List of Things People Leave in Backseats — and It Is Wild

    “For the next five to seven years, we’re going to have more human drivers and delivery people, just because we’re going so quickly,” Khosrowshahi said, per Business Insider. “But, I think, 10 to 15 years from now, this is going to be a real issue.”

    “This is a big, big societal question that we’re going to have to struggle with, and lots of others are going to struggle with too,” Khosrowshahi added.

    It’s not the first time Khosrowshahi has issued the warning, either. In an interview in January, he also said that driving for Uber is only a safe gig for the next decade.

    “You fast forward 15, 20 years, I think that the autonomous driver is going to be a better driver than the human driver,” Khosrowshahi told the Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern at WSJ Journal House Davos, at the time. “They will have trained on lifetimes of driving that no person can; they’re not going to be distracted.”

    Related: Fewer Gen Zers Are Getting Their Driver’s Licenses. Here’s What’s Behind the Decline, According to Uber’s CEO.

    “I think the human displacement here, while it’s not something that is going to happen tomorrow, is going to happen eventually,” he said in January. “And it’s something we have to think about, society has to think about.”

    According to researchers at the University of Central Florida, who put together data from 2,100 accidents involving autonomous vehicles and 35,000 accidents involving human drivers, autonomous vehicles generally show more safety than human-operated vehicles in most scenarios. However, self-driving cars have five times the risk of getting into accidents when operating at dawn and dusk when compared to human-driven cars.

    Khosrowshahi acknowledged the drawbacks of autonomous vehicles as they are today, stating that they currently have limited areas of origination, destination, and overall areas of operation. The upfront costs, including the cost of mapping routes, are expensive, and the hardware isn’t as advanced as it needs to be for widespread adoption.

    Related: Waymo’s Driverless Robotaxi Fleet Is Making 50,000 Trips Per Week — Here’s Where the Cars Are Headed Next

    Autonomous vehicles aren’t going to take over all at once, but instead are going to start by augmenting what humans can do over the next decade, he said. They are going to start by taking over the easier routes.

    “I think for the next 10 years you’re going to have hybrid networks of humans and machines,” Khosrowshahi said.

    “We are making investments in creating alternative methods of making money for our earner base,” Khosrowshahi said, adding that he wasn’t sure which will get there faster — Uber in terms of opportunity or autonomous vehicles in terms of job replacement.

    Rideshare driving was the most-searched side hustle last year, garnering nearly 31,000 monthly Google searches, per a Creative Fabrica study. More than seven million people drive or deliver with Uber alone every month.

    However, there might only be a decade left to make any money through the gig.

    Earlier this month, at an “All-In” podcast event, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi acknowledged that right now, there is still growth, but that work could dry up soon due to robotaxis and autonomous vehicles.

    The rest of this article is locked.

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    Sherin Shibu

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  • Uber shares drop after revenue miss, despite first operating profit

    Uber shares drop after revenue miss, despite first operating profit

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    Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi addresses the audience during the keynote at the start an Uber products launch in San Francisco, California on September 26, 2019.

    Philip Pacheco | Afp | Getty Images

    Shares of Uber fell 4% Tuesday after the company reported second-quarter results that missed analysts’ expectations for revenue but offered rosy guidance.

    Here’s how the company did:

    • Earnings per share: 18 cents vs. 1 cent loss expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.
    • Revenue: $9.23 billion vs. $9.33 billion expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.

    Revenue for the quarter was up 14% from the same quarter last year.

    Uber reported a net income of $394 million, or 18 cents per share, compared to a net loss of $2.6 billion, or $1.33 per share, in the same quarter last year. That includes a $386 million net benefit from revaluations of Uber’s equity investments.

    In a prepared statement, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company achieved two major milestones during the quarter: its first quarter of free cash flow over $1 billion and its first GAAP operating profit. He added that the company plans to be profitable every quarter going forward in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Tuesday.

    “Both of these milestones were achieved through a combination of disciplined execution, record audience and strong engagement,” Khosrowshahi said in the statement.

    Khosrowshahi said during the quarterly call with investors Tuesday that CFO Nelson Chai will depart the company in January 2024. Chai has served as Uber’s CFO since 2018, and he helped the company go public in 2019. The company said it has launched a search for his successor.

    Uber reported adjusted EBITDA of $916 million, up 152% year over year. Gross bookings for the quarter came in at $33.6 billion, up 16% year over year.

    For the third quarter of 2023, Uber said it expects to report gross bookings between $34 billion to $35 billion and an adjusted EBITDA of $975 million to $1.025 billion, both ahead of analysts’ expectations, according to StreetAccount.

    Here’s how Uber’s largest business segments performed:

    Mobility (gross bookings): $16.73 billion, up 25% year-over-year

    Delivery (gross bookings): $15.60 billion, up 12% year-over-year

    Uber’s mobility segment reported $4.89 billion in revenue, compared with delivery’s $3.06 billion. Its freight business booked $1.28 billion in sales for the quarter, down from the $1.83 billion it reported for the same quarter last year.

    Khosrowshahi told CNBC freight has remained a challenging spot for Uber since consumers are spending more on services than on shipping goods. He said services spend ultimately benefits the company’s mobility and delivery businesses, but that Uber is adjusting costs for freight.

    The number of Uber’s monthly active platform consumers reached 137 million in the second quarter, up 12% year over year. There were 2.3 billion trips completed on the platform during the period, up 22% year over year.

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  • Uber’s post-pandemic growth is slowing | CNN Business

    Uber’s post-pandemic growth is slowing | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Uber has reported that its revenue ticked up 14% last quarter, marking a slower pace of growth than recent quarters when sales surged as riders returned to pre-pandemic habits.

    The company on Tuesday reported revenue of $9.2 billion for the quarter ending in June, a 14% increase from the same period last year, just missing Wall Street’s estimates. The number of trips customers took were up 22% in the quarter.

    The company reported its first-ever unadjusted operating profit of $326 million. It also posted record quarterly free cash flow of $1.1 billion.

    “For most of our history, ‘profitable’ wasn’t the first thing that came up when you ask someone about Uber,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on a call with analysts Tuesday morning. “But we knew they were wrong about Uber, as did many of our investors who backed us over the years.”

    Uber also said gross bookings (the amount paid by customers) surged 16% year over year to $33.6 billion. Trips during the quarter grew 22% to 2.3 billion, or approximately 25 million trips per day on average.

    On the call, the chief executive touted “a new all-time high of $15.1 billion in total earnings for drivers and couriers on the platform” that was seen last quarter.

    Uber also announced Tuesday that Chief Financial Officer Nelson Chai will leave the company next January, and a search for his replacement is underway.

    “Nelson has been a huge part of Uber’s transformation over the past five years,” Khosrowshahi said on the analysts’ call. “I know that I speak for the entire company that we’re grateful for everything he’s done to establish such a strong foundation for a path forward.”

    Shares for Uber climbed by some 4% in pre-market trading Tuesday morning as the company offered rosy guidance. Uber stock has roughly doubled since the start of the year.

    In a note Tuesday morning, William Blair analyst Ralph Schackart touted how the strong results this past quarter were “driven by continued execution, robust engagement, and record audience levels using the platform.”

    “Uber continues to drive incremental profitability, demonstrating its ability to efficiently run the broader business and drive positive results,” Schackart added.

    Uber has so far navigated its pandemic recovery far better than its chief rival, Lyft. Lyft is set to report quarterly earnings next week on Tuesday.

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