Marketplace Tech · Friday, July 17, 2026
Uber's push for a slower transition to autonomous vehicles, potentially through lobbying efforts like the one in D.C., might be influenced by the economics of robo-taxis. The company has been partnering with Waymo and other autonomous vehicle companies, but the economic viability may not be as strong as initially anticipated.
“I think what Uber is maybe catching on to here is the economics don't look really as great as they wanted to be. And putting pressure on Waymo is a sort of business tactic both to potentially get better business partnership deals, as they may continue to partner in the future. But also put pressure on Waymo and give a chance for some of the other competitors to grow their businesses, uh, and that competition will ultimately be good for Uber in some ways as it makes that transition more slowly over time between, uh, human drivers to autonomous drivers.”