Uber Faces Rising Pressure From Expanding AV Rivals

Analyst Estimates That About 40% of Uber鈥檚 Mobility Bookings Are Most Exposed to AV Risk From Companies Like Waymo and Tesla

Car with Uber designation
An Uber vehicle in San Francisco. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)

[Stay on top of transportation news: .]

Uber Technologies' quarterly results will likely take a back seat to the mounting threat posed by the growing self-driving fleets from prominent rivals like Alphabet Inc.鈥檚 Waymo and Elon Musk-led Tesla Inc., according to Wall Street analysts.

鈥淲hile the core business trends remain strong, autonomous vehicle headline risk continues to dominate discussion around Uber and creates ongoing volatility,鈥 JPMorgan analyst Douglas Anmuth said.听

The stock is down about 22% since closing at a record high in October, including a 4% decline Feb. 3 ahead of the results before the market opens Feb. 4.听

The San Francisco-based company in November gave fourth-quarter EBITDA guidance that fell slightly short of Wall Street鈥檚 estimates. Uber is estimated to report net earnings of 79 cents a share, on revenue of $14.3 billion.



Last month, the company said it plans to alter its segment operating performance measures beginning in the first quarter of 2026.听

Image
Uber stock

Self-driving car companies can offer the same service as Uber鈥檚 core ride-sharing business, and they can do it without the added cost of a human driver. For now, few AV taxi services have hit the market, and Uber has听delved into the space itself. But as the technology ramps, competition will too, and that could become a greater threat to Uber鈥檚 share of the market.

Wedbush analyst Scott Devitt said in a Jan. 26 note that the market is 鈥渦nderestimating鈥 the negative impact AVs may have on discounted cash flow values of incumbent rideshares, Uber and Lyft Inc.

鈥淲e remain cautious as we weigh the eventual impact of AV disruption on established ridesharing networks as the industry evolves,鈥 said Devitt, who estimated that about 40% of Uber鈥檚 mobility bookings are most exposed to AV risk.听

鈥淪hares trade for a premium relative to the mobility group, which we believe may be difficult to retain if the demand environment were to soften,鈥 he added.

Though Melius analyst Conor Cunningham said near-term fundamentals show continuing growth for Uber and Lyft, he has become 鈥渋ncreasingly cautious鈥 on both stocks given the ongoing expansion efforts from AV companies.听

Cunningham holds the only sell rating on Uber after downgrading it in January. The stock has 51 buy ratings and 11 hold equivalents, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.听

Gerber Kawasaki鈥檚 Ross Gerber said he thinks there will be a few more years before Uber stock is fully hit by AVs.

Waymo just raised $16 billion to reach a听$126 billion valuation, bringing it close to Uber鈥檚 $168 billion market capitalization as of the end of Feb. 2, even though Waymo has听under 3,000听cars on its platform compared to Uber鈥檚 millions of drivers.听

Tesla, for its part, plans to spend听$20 billion听this year in an effort to ramp up production of its physical AI products, including听robotaxis听and full-self driving, though they鈥檙e still far from mass market offerings. Smaller competitors like Amazon.com Inc.鈥檚 Zoox and Pony AI are also limited in scale.

Still, Gerber said his firm recommends that clients sell Uber shares, adding that 鈥渢hey have the most to lose from Tesla and Waymo.鈥 听

Trending

Newsletter Signup

Subscribe to Transport Topics

 

Hot Topics