Uber Technologies
and Waymo are bringing self-driving taxis to Phoenix.
Uber
(ticker: UBER) and
Alphabet
(GOOGL) subsidiary Waymo announced a multi-year partnership to make “Waymo Driver” available to Uber customers in Arizona’s capital city. Waymo cars can be hailed through the Uber app.
Waymo Driver is, essentially, the self-driving taxi service offered by Waymo in some cities. Self-driving cabs are starting to show up in more cities. Waymo operates in San Francisco and Phoenix.
General Motors
‘ (GM) Cruise division operates in Austin, Texas, San Francisco and Phoenix. Motional, which is a joint venture between
Aptiv
(APTV) and
Hyundai Motor
(005380.Korea), operates in Las Vegas.
The self-driving taxis are so-called level 4 autonomous vehicles, meaning they don’t require a human to do anything in certain circumstances. The driver-assistance systems shipped on most passenger cars today qualify as level 2 autonomous systems. Those systems, such as Full Self Driving from
Tesla
(TSLA), will execute a lot of driving tasks, but a human has to pay attention 100% of the time.
“Uber provides access to a global and reliable marketplace across mobility, delivery, and freight,” said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in a news release. “Fully autonomous driving is quickly becoming part of everyday life, and we’re excited to bring Waymo’s incredible technology to the Uber platform.”
Waymo declined to comment on its share of revenue from rides or on pricing. Uber hasn’t responded to a request for comment from Barron’s.
Uber shares were rising 0.8% on Tuesday. The
S&P 500
and
Nasdaq Composite
were down 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively.
The stock’s rise Tuesday extends year-to-date gains to about 56% for Uber. Investors have been impressed by recent results and earnings estimates have been rising.
At the start of the year, Wall Street expected Uber to generate earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, of about $3.2 billion in 2023. Now analysts project 2023 Ebitda of about $3.5 billion.
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