Uber’s Autonomous Vehicle Strategy: Slow Their Adoption

A decade ago, then-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said he saw autonomous vehicles as an existential threat to the ride-hail company's business model.

“What would happen if we weren’t a part of that future? If we weren’t part of the autonomy thing? Then the future passes us by,” Kalanick told Business Insider .

In the years since, Uber has settled on a strategy that, rather than see it build and operate its own self-driving cars , puts it on track to become the place where riders can get connected with any ride, driven by a human or robot. “We think there are going to be many AV players around the world, and we want to be the go-to commercial platform for all of them,” now-CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told investors in 2024. Since then, the company has signed agreements with more than 25 major robotaxi players , with driverless vehicles from Waymo, Nuro, Baidu, and Volkswagen’s MOIA either available or soon to be available on the Uber app in several global cities.

Now, according to documents viewed by WIRED and another obtained through a public records request, Uber’s lobbyists are pushing to build that strategy into law. The company’s representatives have pressed lawmakers to deploy autonomous vehicles on what it calls “hybrid networks,” where human drivers work alongside robots as the new tech grows.

In New Jersey, a lobbyist representing Uber took the strategy a step further, circulating legislative language that would, for a period of three years, require any platform offering driverless ride-hailing services to have human drivers serve 85 percent of its rides.

The language would likely prevent self-driving vehicle developers, including Waymo , Zoox , and Tesla , from operating their own ride-hail apps in the state—effectively forcing them onto another ride-hail app if they hope to enter the market and limiting competition for Uber, the country’s reigning ride-hail leader.

A representative for Uber pitched a version of the proposal to New Jersey state senator Andrew Zwicker, according to his chief of staff, Ayla Rios. Zwicker is the sponsor of a bill currently being considered by the state legislature that would establish New Jersey's first set of rules governing self-driving cars on public roads. The Uber lobbyists’ proposed language restricting standalone robotaxi-hailing apps is not currently part of the bill, which could come up for a vote this fall.

The New Jersey bill is the first proposed in the nation that would limit the operation of Tesla’s robotaxis, because it requires AV developers to use multiple sensors to power its software , rather than just cameras, as Tesla’s technology does. It would also require vehicles to be operated in emergencies using steering wheels and brake pedals, which purpose-built robotaxis like those from Zoox do not have.