Episode summary
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on Q3 results: We have more demand than we have supply
Summary
Dara Khosrowshahi said Uber is seeing strong demand across mobility and delivery, with gross bookings up 20% year on year on a $60 billion base, trips up 16%, and monthly active users above 200 million. He emphasized that the bigger issue right now is supply, not demand: consumer activity is outpacing available drivers and couriers, so Uber is investing in more supply in India, Brazil, Canada and the U.S. rather than simply raising prices or worsening ETAs.
He also outlined Uber’s autonomous vehicle strategy, saying the company has committed about $10 billion to AVs through partners such as Nuro, Avride, Rivian and Waymo. Khosrowshahi expects more than 2,000 AVs in multiple markets next year, tens of thousands in 2028, and substantially more in 2029 and 2030. He argued AVs can expand total market demand and eventually become as profitable as human-driven rides, though that will take time.
On AI agents, he said Uber wants to work with third-party agents while keeping consumers coming directly to Uber, noting the company’s low-friction booking experience. On the DoorDash-Instacart deal, he said merchants may prefer multiple channels, and that a merger could make Uber more important as an alternative route to consumers.
Key takeaways
- Khosrowshahi said Uber’s Q3 gross bookings rose 20% year on year and trips rose 16% on a $60 billion bookings base.
- He said Uber currently has more demand than supply, especially in mobility, and is investing in driver and courier supply instead of pushing higher prices.
- Khosrowshahi said Uber has committed about $10 billion to autonomous vehicles and expects over 2,000 AVs in multiple markets next year.
- He argued AV markets can expand demand, citing Texas growth that is about seven percentage points faster than the rest of the nation.
- He said AI agents are interesting, but Uber wants consumers to keep coming directly to Uber for a simple booking experience.
- On the DoorDash-Instacart merger, he said merchants want multiple channels and may view Uber as a more important alternative if the deal closes.
Notable quotes
“WE HAVE MORE DEMAND THAN WE HAVE SUPPLY. SO THE DEMAND, ESPECIALLY FOR MOBILITY SERVICES, IS EXCEEDING THAT OF THE SUPPLY OF DRIVERS OF COURIERS ON OUR PLATFORM”
“GROSS BOOKINGS FOR US GREW 20% YEAR ON YEAR ON A $60 BILLION BASE NOW, WHICH IS TERRIFIC”
“WE'VE GOT OVER, I THINK, CLOSE TO 11 BILLION EARNERS ON OUR PLATFORM. AND ACTUALLY WE'RE NOW AT A RUN RATE OF OVER $100 BILLION THIS QUARTER”
“WE HAVE TALKED ABOUT OF INVESTING AND COMMITTING OVER $10 BILLION IN CAPITAL”
“WE THINK, YOU KNOW, THESE AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES ARE GOING TO BE SAFER”
How the episode opens
Should be balanced. Whether you should raise one to the other or lower the other one. That's really up to the folks in power, but it doesn't seem right to me. It doesn't seem balanced to me. And maybe. — You've given so many people such a great, such great opportunities to. I think I'd just be sticking my chest out and proud of that, I really do.
Yeah. Listen, we are, we are, we're doing our part right. We've got over, I think, close to 11 billion earners on our platform.
And actually we're now at a run rate of over $100 billion this quarter. We paid $25 billion to our drivers and couriers. So we're at $100 billion run rate.
Where as a company you know we're building a business that pays people to be able to work flexibly. Driver earnings are up. Courier earnings are up.
So we certainly have a lot to be proud of. And we're playing our part, but we're small part of the ecosystem even though we're a pretty big company.
So talk about the last quarter. I think the things that people were really focused on this time around were gross bookings and just the overall user growth piece of this story.
Yeah, absolutely. So gross bookings for us grew 20% year on year on a $60 billion base now, which is terrific. Trips grew 16% year on year, and our audience is at an all time record, well over 200 million monthly active users, growing at 14% year on year.
The trend that we saw this quarter was actually that we have more demand than we have supply. So the demand, especially for mobility services, is exceeding that of the supply of drivers of couriers on our platform.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- q3 earnings
- midterm elections
- autonomous vehicles
- ai agents
- demand vs supply
Companies and tickers mentioned
- UBER
- Uber
Watch the episode
Watch “Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on Q3 results: We have more demand than we have supply” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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