Uber CEO on Winning the Robotaxi Race, the End of Car Ownership, and Uber’s Next $1 Trillion Bet | Dara Khosrowshahi (Uber CEO) | 243

Peter Diamandis (0:00)

The RoboTaxi race is heating up. How are you going to win that race? Well, when you joined Taking the Mantle of Uber, I think Uber was losing $4.5 billion a year. Today, it's earning over $10 billion a year. You really focus the organization.

Dara Khosrowshahi (0:17)

Autonomous technology and autonomous vehicles, they are increasingly a reality on the streets. As we speak, there isn't going to be this binary outcome. It's going to develop in a hybrid way. And you are going to have fleets in cities that consist of some autonomous vehicles and then many human driven vehicles as well.

Salim Ismail (0:38)

100 years ago, we had this massive shift from horse and buggy to cars. It took about 15 years to make the transition where 50% of the vehicles were cars. How long do you expect that transition to take where 50% of the cars are self-driving cars?

Dara Khosrowshahi (0:57)

Now, that's the Moonshot, ladies and gentlemen. Quite the greeting.

Peter Diamandis (1:02)

Wow. Yeah. The energy is awesome and you deserve it, pal. First of all, you look amazing.

Dara Khosrowshahi (1:09)

Thank you very much.

Peter Diamandis (1:10)

Staying in good health?

Dara Khosrowshahi (1:11)

Yes, trying.

Peter Diamandis (1:12)

Excellent. Well, so far so good. I mean, the biggest challenge we have is stress levels. Indeed. Way too much travel. So I want to not take it for granted. Thank you for coming out. I'm grateful for you, Peter. I'm grateful for your friendship. We've known each other since you were at Expedia.

You had an incredible success story there. When the highest, if not the highest paid CEO, you actually walked away from a $200 million stock package from Expedia to take the mantle of Uber.

I remember, I just looked at this other day, when you joined taking the mantle of Uber, I think Uber was losing, what's the number? $4.5 billion a year. That was quite the buzz saw to walk into. Today, this is the hallmark of an extraordinary CEO. Today, it's earning over $10 billion a year. What a turnaround, amazing story.

Dara Khosrowshahi (2:12)

Thank you, thank you.

Peter Diamandis (2:15)

Really, really extraordinary. And just the scope of what it's done. I remember, you really focused the organization. I think one of the things that a lot of companies fail about is doing too much at once. Yeah, yeah.

Dara Khosrowshahi (2:32)

And I think we were definitely guilty of that as well. And one of the great pieces of advice that I got from a good friend of mine, Barney Harford, was strategy is just as much about what you're doing and what you choose not to do. It's very easy to say yes to another idea. It's very difficult to say no. But sometimes the no's then amplify the yeses. And it's about pointing the company, having a point of view, pointing the company in a singular direction, and then putting everything you've got behind it.

Peter Diamandis (3:04)

Well, you've done that and with huge success. And now you're going back to the stuff that you left on the table before. Which is, we'll talk about flying cars and all of that. So the RoboTaxi race is heating up.

Dara Khosrowshahi (3:17)

Definitely. Yes.

Peter Diamandis (3:19)

And so I'm going to start with the hard question. How are you going to win that race?

Dara Khosrowshahi (3:24)

Well, we are going to win that race with the autonomous community. So autonomous technology and autonomous vehicles, they are increasingly a reality on the streets. As we speak, it's been 15, 16 years of development.

Peter Diamandis (3:41)

Yeah, since the DARPA-Grad balance.

Dara Khosrowshahi (3:42)

Exactly, with lots of long tales, et cetera. And Waymo is a leader and a big partner of ours in Austin and Atlanta. And what we view is that there isn't going to be this kind of binary outcome, which is either all autonomous or no autonomous, that really the world, as autonomous technology develops, it's going to develop in a hybrid way. And you are going to have fleets in cities that consist of some autonomous vehicles and then many human driven vehicles as well. And that, ultimately, that transition and the part that we play in that transition, because of the incredible demand that we bring to both human drivers and robot drivers, we will have a big part to play in that transition as well, so we partner with Waymo, but we have got over 20 partners now in the autonomous space including NVIDIA for example, WeRide, Pony, Wabi amongst others. And just like we want every terrific licensed human driver on the platform, we are going to want every terrific licensed robot driver on the platform as well. And we will be in 15 cities by the end of the year with our partners. And by 2029, we think that we will facilitate more autonomous and robot taxi rides than anyone else in the world.