Ride-hailing app Uber expects to offer rides in autonomous vehicles (AVs) in 15 global cities by the end of the year, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said during an earnings call on Wednesday (4 February).
AV trips will be launched in London, Zurich, Madrid and Munich this year, as well as in Los Angeles, Houston, the San Francisco Bay Area and in Hong Kong – which will be Uber’s first robotaxi market in Asia.
“We are setting up depots, acquiring real estate, making sure we have the charging infrastructure in place, and our government relations team is working with regulators on the ground to make sure we’re ready to go. And then, of course, we have to work with partners on the safety case," Khosrowshahi said.
The company already facilitates driverless car services in the US cities of Atlanta, Austin, Dallas and Phoenix, as well as across the Middle East, in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Riyadh.
"Usually, we will launch [AVs] with a driver in-vehicle and then, over a period of time, like we did in Abu Dhabi, we will take drivers out and have full AV capabilities," Khosrowshahi added. "This is machinery that we have built and are learning on, and we’re going to get faster as we move along.”
Khosrowshahi described AVs as a “growth driver” that he expects will be “net positive in growing the economy pie for Uber as technology that will not replace but augment [services]”.
He outlined Uber’s AV investment strategy across three key partner groups: supporting AV software partners by providing capital as well as Uber’s data and platform capabilities, investing in OEM (original equipment manufacturer) partners as they scale up AV production capacities, and supporting AV infrastructure partners.
“In the long term, we intend to remain asset-light and believe the ownership of AVs will become financialised over time. However, in the initial years of AV deployment, we may purchase some vehicles directly to shape the category and improve our speed to market,” Khosrowshahi said.
Uber is working with multiple AI technology partners – such as Waabi, Nvidia, Waymo and Wayve – to scale its AV services globally. In January, Uber, in partnership with automaker Lucid and AV technology company Nuro, announced the joint development of a robotaxi (main image), which is scheduled for launch in the San Francisco Bay Area later this year.
The rail-hailing giant intends to be the largest facilitator of AV trips in the world by 2029 and signalled “we will have much more to announce with existing and new partners in the coming months”.
Driverless taxis are one of the trends and developments featured in BTN Europe’s Hotlist 2026. Uber previously announced its partnership with AI company Wayve to bring AVs to London, while rival Lyft is partnering with Chinese tech firm Baidu to launch autonomous cars in both the UK and Germany this year.