Uber Plans to Invest More to Build Self-Driving Car Availability

Uber plans to more than double the number of self-driving cars operating on its platform over the next year, the company said on Wednesday as it reported third quarter results, with plans to arrange financing to build self driving fleets of cars. Uber also wants to bring in outside capital to help with that effort, CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy said.

Uber has partnered with a wide range of autonomous car developers, including Amazon’s Zoox, which it is launching on the Uber app in Las Vegas this month. The company will have 700 self driving cars on Uber by the end of this year, a number expected to increase to more than 2,000 by the end of 2027.

Krishnamurthy told analysts on a conference call that it was planning to increase self-driving car numbers to 10,000 or more in 2028, and Uber hoped to bring in outside capital to help finance that.

Uber reported 10% higher revenues of $14.76 billion in the quarter, while gross bookings rose 20%. Uber’s free cash flow jumped 14% to $2.5 billion. The company said its ride-hailing growth was dampened by a lack of drivers in international markets, which it is trying to fix.