Uber (NYSE:UBER) is going all-in on the use of autonomous vehicles and plans to build a marketplace where the company can remain as “pure-play as possible,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference.
“The landscape is dynamic,” Khosrowshahi said, “and we want to play where we’re strong and target demand against supply that increases earnings for suppliers and utilization for suppliers.”
Khosrowshahi confirmed that Uber (UBER) is working with 10 AV players in the mobility delivery space, including Waymo and Cruise, and now with Wave in the UK, and anticipates that the software will “get to a very good place over the next three to five years.”
In regard to advertising, one of the biggest areas of growth for Uber (UBER) is sponsor listing, especially on the grocery side, and the company is actively launching in markets outside the U.S., expanding into what Khosrowshahi considers a “highly profitable business.”
Outside of AV expansion, Khosrowshahi set his priorities for Uber (UBER) to include growing the business organically rather than through acquisitions, with much of the effort within the company towards organic growth. “The way to get to attractive deals is to not to do a deal in the first place,” he said.
Finally, Khosrowshahi intends to use the majority of Uber’s (UBER) incremental capital towards buybacks with a goal of reducing the share base of the company going forward.
“We want to be as capital-lite as much as possible,” he added.
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