Uber CEO: Elon Musk wants to go solo with "RoboTaxi"

Against the backdrop of rapid development in global autonomous driving technology, ride-hailing giant Uber is facing new challenges from tech giants.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi recently stated at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference held in Miami that Elon Musk has no intention of integrating Tesla's RoboTaxi into the Uber platform, which means Uber will directly compete with Tesla in the autonomous driving sector.

Khosrowshahi mentioned that he had discussions with Tesla CEO Elon Musk regarding the autonomous taxi business. However, Musk seems inclined to have Tesla independently develop and operate this service rather than collaborate with existing platforms like Uber.

"At this point, I have talked to him. They want to build it independently, so to some extent, in Austin, we will compete with Tesla when they launch alongside Waymo."

Although cooperation with Tesla has not been achieved, Uber has not slowed down its layout in the autonomous driving field. Khosrowshahi stated that Uber will collaborate with Waymo, the autonomous driving company under Alphabet. In fact, Uber has already established a partnership with Waymo and plans to launch Waymo's autonomous ride-hailing service in Austin next month, followed by a launch of the service in Atlanta this summer.

It is noteworthy that, in addition to collaborating with Uber, Waymo is also providing autonomous ride-hailing services through its own consumer application in major markets like San Francisco and plans to expand its services to Miami next year.

Khosrowshahi believes that Uber becoming a platform for Tesla drivers would have "great economic significance" because "the demand we bring to the AV ecosystem is often quite variable."

However, Tesla's decision to "go solo" will undoubtedly intensify competition in the autonomous taxi market. Bloomberg analysis suggests that the launch of Tesla's autonomous taxis and the broader rollout of Waymo's ride-hailing service could harm Uber's ride volume growth and reduce its commission rates.