Episode summary
Uber CEO on AI, Autonomous Vehicles, and the Future of Transportation
Invest Like the Best
· · Hosts: Patrick O'Shaughnessy · Guests: Dara Khosrowshahi
Summary
Dara Khosrowshahi argues that Uber’s next chapter is being shaped by AI in two layers: software that improves the app today and physical AI that changes transportation, delivery, and eventually travel. He says Uber is already using larger models to improve search, prediction, utilization, and internal productivity, while also preparing for autonomous vehicles and drones as a new trillion-dollar marketplace.
He frames Uber as a supply-led marketplace, unlike Expedia, saying the company wins by securing drivers, merchants, couriers, charging, depots, financing, and other infrastructure first, then letting demand follow. On AVs, he says Uber does not need to build everything itself; it wants to be the go-to-market and demand aggregator across many partners, including Waymo, Nuro, Lucid, Nvidia, and others, while building the ecosystem around them.
Khosrowshahi also argues that the company’s membership and cross-platform model are central to its edge. Uber One now has 50 million members, and he says the broader app should increasingly combine rides, Eats, grocery, hotels, and reserve booking into one personalized experience. He expects AI to make the interface more conversational and less dependent on static app flows, while keeping Uber focused on lowering prices, increasing reliability, and expanding access.
Key takeaways
- Khosrowshahi says Uber’s internal AI adoption is already broad, including engineering, legal, and marketing, and that the company blew through its annual AI budget in one quarter.
- He says Uber is a supply-led marketplace, so winning AVs depends on securing drivers, merchants, depots, charging, financing, and regulatory support before demand arrives.
- Uber has over 30 AV partnerships, and Khosrowshahi says AVs on Uber’s network are 30% or more busier than comparable vehicles off-network.
- He says Uber One has 50 million members and is growing 50% year-on-year, making membership a key profit and retention engine.
- Khosrowshahi expects drones for food and groceries to scale over the next two to five years, but says battery density and payload constraints still limit adoption.
Notable quotes
“We think it's another trillion dollar marketplace. It will change how society operates”
“At Uber, everything is upside down. One of our very very significant growth opportunities right now is building at our surface not just in the big cities but in the sparse markets”
“we are a supply company. The more drivers we have in the marketplace, the more restaurants that we're wiring up for you, the more latent demand that we have”
“we've got over 30 partnerships now with incredible uh partners like a Whimo to a neuro and lucid to an Nvidia”
“We blew through our AI budget in a quarter, you know, for the whole year essentially”
How the episode opens
Every single year that I've been in Uber has been a challenge and obviously the challenge and the opportunity now is the rise of AI. You don't just exist in the digital sphere, right? Our experiences encompass digital first in terms of your interaction with our platform, but then they are delivered or fulfilled in the real world.
The rise of physical AI, autonomous vehicles, drones, etc., they are going to change how we interact with consumers in the real world. We think it's another trillion dollar marketplace. It will change how society operates.
So I think I have to begin with the story you were just telling me about how you took the job here, how you heard about it. And the reason I start there is because I want to know what it was like, what the company felt like to you when you showed up, how that's evolved. I'll ask all sorts of questions around this and then very importantly like what the current moment feels like, which I think is the most interesting question for the business possible.
But I love the origins. So I would love to hear how did you hear about this job in the first place? What was the backtory?
Yeah. So I've been at Expedia for 13 years. uh CEO working with Barry Diller and um and loved the experience and I loved where I was and at the time like Uber was in the news all the time, right?
It was in the business if you're if you're interested. So obviously I was reading about the situation at Uber. It was seemed pretty chaotic uh and pretty difficult.
And then a head hunter called me out of the blue and said, "Are you interested in the Uber CEO job? And at the time I said, you know, no effing way like uh who who would even think about it uh at the time and I had a considerably lower profile as as you can imagine.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ai in transportation
- autonomous vehicles
- robotaxis
- drone delivery
- uber marketplace strategy
Companies and tickers mentioned
- UBER
- Uber
Watch the episode
Watch “Uber CEO on AI, Autonomous Vehicles, and the Future of Transportation” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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