\u201cOur network benefits from every incremental unit of supply added in a city. As supply increases, customers find more value because rides become more affordable with faster ETAs,\u201d the Uber-penned docs read. \u201cThis fact alone gives us considerable conviction that AVs (as a new form of supply) will expand \u2014 not shrink \u2014 our total addressable market.\u201d<\/p>\n
Between Uber and its competitor Lyft, there are around 80,000 licensed app-based taxis currently in New York City. It\u2019s clear from Uber\u2019s investor materials that the company sees autonomous taxis entering the market as a chance to expand its footprint.<\/p>\n
In other words, Waymo means way mo\u2019 cars.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Uber used its investor presentation to explain that in Austin and Atlanta \u2014 cities where Uber has a partnership with Waymo to offer driverless Waymo cabs from the Uber app \u2014 the company\u2019s overall trip numbers have \u201cgrown significantly.\u201d And that not just for the growing for the self-driving Waymos, but for Uber, as more people are tapping for an old-school cab with a human driver.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Austin and Atlanta have become \u201camong [the] fastest-growing\u201d areas for Uber in the U.S., the company said.<\/p>\n
In San Francisco, where Waymo has been operating as a stand-alone app since June 2024, \u201cthe addition of AV supply to the market has grown the category [cab] overall,\u201d the Uber document states. As a result, not only are residents choosing Waymo, but they\u2019re also expanding their use of Ubers. In other words, the addition of Waymo to a city where Uber already operated did not replace Uber trips, it did the opposite, according to the company. Uber is planning its own self-driving taxis in San Francisco within the year, according to its investor presentations.<\/p>\n
Cyclists in San Francisco are already losing some of their car-free spaces, the city has just begun to allow Waymos, and Uber and Lyft black car services, back onto Market Street, which has been closed fully or in part to cars since 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis administration is making the choice to prioritize the more expensive and inaccessible transportation modes at the expense of people using the most affordable transportation modes,\u201d said Christopher White, executive director of the San Francisco Bike Coalition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
White added that there is no delusion that the robotic taxis will reduce overall car use \u2014 a frequent claim of Waymo executives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone buys the argument that it will reduce vehicles on the street,\u201d said White. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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Waymo\u2019s robo-driver. <\/p>\n
Uber doesn\u2019t disagree.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do believe that autonomous vehicles have the potential to expand the overall rideshare market, not simply replace existing trips,\u201d Josh Gold, Uber\u2019s senior director of public policy told Streetsblog. \u201cWe also believe AV technology has the potential, over time, to be safer than human driving. That\u2019s a big part of why there\u2019s so much long-term optimism around the space.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s only competition in New York City is Lyft and old-school yellow cabs, and Uber is by far the dominant force. Uber was dispatching 505,963 trips per day in February of this year, Lyft had 203,883, and yellow cabs had just 117,694, according to city stats<\/a>. Gold urged city regulators to \u201cengage seriously in the broader implications\u201d of driverless ride-hailing.<\/p>\n \u201cIf AVs both scale supply and improve safety, they won\u2019t just be a marginal change; they could reshape urban transportation systems. That raises important questions around labor displacement, congestion, accessibility, and how to ensure service is distributed equitably across communities,\u201d he told Streetsblog.\u00a0<\/p>\n And Waymo agreed. At the first \u201cFuture of Transportation\u201d conference at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, Anthony Perez, a former DOT borough planner and current northeast policy manager at Waymo, said that Waymo grows the sector overall.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been in Phoenix for five years and guess what, the drivers didn\u2019t disappear,\u201d Perez said in response to questions about labor.<\/p>\n Later in the panel, Perez made promises and projections that Waymo will not pull people from transit, but be an integral \u201clast-mile\u201d partner and discourage people from owning personal cars and taking a Waymo instead.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way we view it is that we want to be an alternative for personal car usage,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead of me having to own this car and to pay insurance, to pay a monthly loan or whatever it is to pay for gas. \u2026 You want those folks to say, \u2018Hey, it\u2019s easier, cheaper, more efficient to use a vehicle that is automated and through a service like Waymo.’\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\tRecommended<\/p>\n
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The panel of AV skeptics at Hunter college. <\/p>\n