Uber COO Says Robotaxi Tech Is Largely Ready But Hardware Costs Are Still Too High

• Macdonald said that Uber expects to deploy robotaxis on its Uber app across 10-plus cities by this time next year.
• The Uber COO also noted that Uber’s partners outside of the US, such as Chinese robotaxi players WeRide and Pony AI, are starting to lower their costs.

Uber Technologies (UBER) COO Andrew Macdonald believes the hardware cost for autonomous vehicles has to come down before they can be financially viable, though technological advancement in the field is significant.

Uber has partnerships in place with multiple robotaxi companies, including Pony AI, WeRide and Alphabet Inc’s Waymo. The company is now looking to scale deployments across multiple cities and geographical regions where these robotaxis will be deployed alongside human drivers.

“Writing L4 software that’s fully capable of driving on its own safely — and not just as safe as a human, but 10x as safe as a human — I venture to say that problem is almost largely solved,” Macdonald said at the Web Summit 2025 conference in Lisbon on Tuesday.

Hurdles To Cross

However, despite the technological advancement, there are still real problems with commercialization, such as safety record, supportive regulatory frameworks and questions regarding asset ownership and infrastructure, he noted.

“...at the end of the day, these are going to be expensive assets for some time and the return on an expensive asset is always going to be driven by utilization,” he noted.  

According to Macdonald, in Austin, Texas, the average Waymo robotaxi deployed on Uber is busier than 99% of the drivers in the company. However, challenges regarding costs persist, preventing robotaxis from fully replacing human-driven ride-hailing services.

“...challenge is that the underlying hardware is still quite expensive and your operating costs in the form of all the pieces of the deployment structure that I talked about are still significant, so the economics don't work today. I think what you need to see is the hardware cost come down. It probably needs to go somewhere from a half to a quarter of where it is today,” he noted.

Cost Reduction Efforts

Macdonald, however, also noted that Uber’s partners outside of the US, such as Chinese robotaxi players WeRide and Pony AI, are starting to lower their costs.

“The Chinese automotive sector has a proven track record of being able to iterate and have great tech but also bring the cost of that tech way down with scale. And so it's gonna happen,” he said.

Macdonald said that Uber expects to deploy robotaxis on its Uber app across 10-plus cities by this time next year. Currently, the company has deployed robotaxis on its app across about four cities.

How Did Stocktwits Users React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around UBER stock stayed within the ‘bearish’ territory over the past 24 hours, while message volume fell from ‘normal’ to ‘low’ levels.

UBER stock is up by 57% this year and by about 32% over the past 12 months. 

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