Could Uber Be a Long-Term Winner in the Robotaxi Revolution?

During their recent episode of the Value Options Letter and Acquirers Podcast, Travis and Carlisle discussed Could Uber Be a Long-Term Winner in the Robotaxi Revolution? Here’s an excerpt from the episode:

[Tobias] Yeah, great. Let’s talk a little bit about another trade that we’ve got on Uber. One of the interesting things about Uber, flipped cash flow positive a few years ago.

Its main competitor, Lyft, has now also flipped cash flow positive, which suggests that industry is doing fairly well, pretty healthy. And Uber, I think, probably out-competes Lyft over the long term because this is a network effects type business where more drivers, more customers means more density, shorter wait times, greater selection of vehicles. I guess the risk is that some of these self-driving businesses like Tesla has the cyber cab and Waymo perhaps are competing directly with these guys.

But I see them probably ultimately as beneficiaries of the self-driving as well, because to me, the harder thing to build out is the network rather than the underlying self-driving car. I think that technology is probably more likely to be commoditised than the network is the really difficult thing to build out. But let’s talk, tell me what’s your thesis for Uber.