Uber Looks to AI and Autonomous Vehicles to Drive Next-Gen Growth

Uber Technologies’ third-quarter 2025 earnings report, released Tuesday (Nov. 4), showed how the company’s core ride-hailing and delivery engines continue to grow. Management is positioning data, artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles to drive its next chapter.

Total trips grew 22% year over year, and gross bookings climbed 21%. Average pricing stayed flat, signaling volume-driven expansion. Audience size increased 17% and engagement 4%.

“We are expecting more of the same strong performance in Q4,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told analysts during an earnings call, guiding to high-teens gross bookings growth.

Shares were 6% lower in early trading Tuesday.

Uber plans to capitalize on cross-selling efforts across the expanding platform, management said during the call.

Khosrowshahi said one top strategic goal is moving “from trip experience to lifetime experience.” Only 20% of consumers in markets where mobility and delivery operate currently use both products, but those users “spend three times more and retain 35% better than single-product users.”

To close that gap, Uber is adding in-app cross-selling prompts and contextual offers.

“If you are going to work, we will offer you a Starbucks on the way to work,” Khosrowshahi said. “That is great incremental business for Starbucks, and it is kind of a delightful experience for you as well.”

He said the company is still “very early in terms of the innings” of driving cross-platform behavior.

Membership remains another pillar of that engagement push. The program now counts 36 million Uber One members across 42 countries, up from 28 a year ago. Penetration is about two-thirds of delivery gross bookings and rising in mobility, according to management commentary.

Benefits include 6% cash back on rides, no delivery fees, up to 10% off orders, and “surprise and delight” rewards, Khosrowshahi said. Membership is initially margin-dilutive because discounts outweigh usage gains, but the membership cohorts “continue to improve, especially as we move a higher percentage of the users from monthly passes to annual passes.”

Generative AI now touches nearly every part of the platform as the company is “embedding intelligence across Uber Technologies to enhance productivity, optimize our operations and deliver more personalized consumer experiences,” Khosrowshahi said.

The company is also applying AI to new work opportunities. Its multiple gigs initiative lets drivers supplement their transportation income with tasks through Uber AI Solutions.

Uber’s alliance with Nvidia and Stellantis is central to what Khosrowshahi termed a “hybrid future” integrating human drivers and Level 4 autonomous vehicles in a single marketplace. An initial 5,000 Stellantis vehicles will use Nvidia’s Hyperion platform.

Early deployments with Waymo in Austin and Atlanta are promising, he said.

Khosrowshahi said autonomous vehicles are not profitable today and he expects “that AV will not be profitable for a few years going forward.” But Uber has run this play before, launching unprofitable categories like taxis, two-wheelers and auto-rickshaws that later matured into positive contributors.

Chief Financial Officer Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah said delivery posted its fastest growth in four years, helped by grocery and retail orders now running at a $12 billion gross bookings pace and delivering positive variable margin.

“We are very excited on how grocery and retail [are] leading to an introduction of folks into online food delivery,” he said.

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