Fund Manager Believes Uber Will Make Waymo Irrelevant Once Robotaxis Go Global — Here’s Why

• While Waymo develops its autonomous vehicle technology, Uber relies on partnerships to deploy robotaxis on its platform.
• Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said earlier on Wednesday during the company’s first-quarter earnings call that Waymo’s launch in new cities is not impacting its overall business.
• Uber is now live with autonomous rides in eight cities and remains on track to expand to as many as 15 cities by the end of 2026.

Fund manager Gary Black on Wednesday challenged what he called a “common misperception” about Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER), arguing that the ride-hailing giant’s vast platform positions it to prevail in the autonomous vehicle era even as its partners like Waymo scale their own independent robotaxi fleets.

“This captures a common misperception about $UBER,” Black, managing partner of The Future Fund LLC, wrote on X. “$UBER is a ride-hailing platform with 200 million monthly active platform customers (+19% YoY) and 10 million active vehicles. UBER’s app connects its 200M MAPCs and 10M vehicles. By comparison, Waymo has 3,000 robotaxi vehicles on its platform.”

According to Black, once Uber starts offering fully autonomous ride-hailing across the globe at the same cost as Waymo, there will be “no reason to take a Waymo.”

“Many $TSLA bulls here who think of UBER as just an app don’t understand the concepts of brand and operational leverage,” Black argued. “ No app can offer what UBER does.”

Waymo-Uber Partnership

Uber and Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving unit, have built one of the industry’s most visible robotaxi collaborations. Riders in Austin and Atlanta can hail fully autonomous Waymo Jaguar I-PACE vehicles exclusively through the Uber app. However, in certain other cities, including San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, Waymo offers rides via its own app.

While Waymo develops its autonomous vehicle technology, Uber relies on partnerships to deploy robotaxis on its platform.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said earlier on Wednesday during the company’s first-quarter earnings call that Waymo’s launch in new cities is not impacting its overall business. In San Francisco and Los Angeles, where Waymo provides rides via its own platform, the company's category position is higher than it was six months ago, he said.

The CEO also noted that the company is signing up more partners, thanks to the demand it generates for robotaxis. In the first quarter alone, Uber announced 10 new or expanded AV partnerships, including with Rivian Automotive, Zoox, Wayve, Motional, Lucid, WeRide, and Nvidia.

Uber’s Robotaxi Strategy

Black’s comments came as Uber shares rose sharply on the day the company reported first-quarter 2026 results and provided fresh details on its autonomous strategy.

Khosrowshahi reiterated their conviction that a hybrid network of human-driven and autonomous vehicles will unlock significant long-term value while leveraging the company’s existing platform strengths in demand, supply, and operations at global scale, on Wednesday.

Uber is now live with autonomous rides in eight cities and remains on track to expand to as many as 15 cities by the end of 2026, including new U.S. deployments.

How Did Uber Retail Traders React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around UBER jumped from ‘bullish’ to ‘extremely bullish’ territory over the past 24 hours, while message volume increased from ‘high’ to ‘extremely high’ levels.

A Stocktwits user expressed optimism for Uber scaling robotaxis to 15 cities by year-end.

Another user termed autonomous driving as a “good thing for Uber,” with Uber pocketing the money that would have otherwise gone to the driver.

UBER stock has fallen by about 9% over the past 12 months. 

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