All posts tagged: Uber

Uber to put 500 data-collection vehicles on the road this year

Uber to put 500 data-collection vehicles on the road this year

Published by skeptic

Uber revealed on Wednesday a prototype car that it plans to use to scoop up real-world driving data for its growing roster of autonomous vehicle partners, including Avride, Waymo, and WeRide. The vehicle is not some radical design. Rather, it’s a Hyundai Ioniq 5 fitted with an incredible number of sensors on the top and sides, as the company first told TechCrunch back in January. The sensor-laden vehicle may not look particularly groundbreaking, but it does mark a few milestones for the company. This is the first vehicle Uber has assembled itself (with help from a partner) since the company sold its autonomous vehicle division to Aurora in 2020. It also represents progress on Uber’s new AV Labs division, which launched earlier this year to use sensor-equipped Uber cars to collect and then share data with its 30-and-counting autonomous vehicle technology partners. Uber said Wednesday that it plans to roll out 500 of these kitted-out Hyundai EVs globally this year. That fleet will be able to collect “2 million miles per month of high-fidelity data” …

Uber Introduces ,500 Monthly Cap On AI Coding Tools After Budget Blowout

Uber Introduces $1,500 Monthly Cap On AI Coding Tools After Budget Blowout

Published by Jenni Sidey

Uber has set a $1,500 monthly cap on employee spending for specific AI coding tools after the company exhausted its entire 2026 budget for those tools in the first four months of the year. The limits apply to agentic coding platforms such as Anthropic’s Claude Code and Cursor, according to Stocktwits. Prior to the caps, some engineers were generating monthly bills between $500 and $2,000 in token consumption as adoption of the tools surged following their rollout in late 2025. In April, Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga went on the record saying the company had burned through its entire 2026 Claude Code budget in four months. Roughly 5,000 engineers, monthly usage rates between 84 and 95%, per-engineer bills ranging from $150 to $2,000. Neppalli reportedly torched $1,200 in tokens during a two-hour internal demo. Macdonald would later describe his reaction to learning the number as a “head-exploding moment.” President and COO Andrew Macdonald has been open about the challenge – noting that while AI tools are seeing strong adoption, the direct connection between higher token spend and the …

Squishmallows, dentures, and an ‘I Heart Hot Dads’ bag: Uber has found thousands of items left in robotaxis

Squishmallows, dentures, and an ‘I Heart Hot Dads’ bag: Uber has found thousands of items left in robotaxis

Published by skeptic

For the past 10 years, Uber’s annual Lost & Found Index has provided a rather quirky anthropological snapshot of its riders — and even a few insights into society. The annual catalogue of millions of forgotten items ranges from mundane modern-day tools such as smartphones and laptops, to more eyebrow-raising objects like live fish, an ankle monitor, a toboggan, a package of live butterflies, and a single Louboutin shoe. This year, Uber is using the report to highlight the same old problem of lost items with a new twist: robotaxis. Thousands of items (it’s a bit too new for millions) were left behind in robotaxis on Uber’s ride-hailing network in the past year, the company said Tuesday. There were the usual suspects of phones, keys, wallets, passports, and headphones, along with a few items that strayed into the who-is-this-rider category: a set of dentures, an “I Heart Hot Dads” bag, and a blue hat that reads “Emotional Support Human.” Beyond this entertaining list lies a business opportunity, if a minor one. Even in a future …

Uber caps employee AI spending after blowing through budget in 4 months

Uber caps employee AI spending after blowing through budget in 4 months

Published by skeptic

AI is getting expensive, and some companies are cutting back on usage in an attempt to moderate costs. That cohort includes Uber, which recently instituted internal usage caps as a way to cut down on its exorbitant AI spend. Bloomberg reports that the company has instituted a new rule that places a monthly $1,500 cap per employee and per agentic coding tool, including Anthropic’s Claude Code or Cursor. The usage is trackable via an internal dashboard that each employee has access to, although — in certain cases — the caps can be exceeded with permission, the company says. The news is perhaps not too surprising, since, in April, the company’s CTO revealed that the ridesharing giant had blown through its entire annual AI budget in a matter of four months. That appears to have occurred after Uber encouraged staff to use AI “as much as possible” and even ranked their internal usage competitively on internal leader boards, The Information previously reported. Uber’s COO, Andrew Macdonald, also recently cast doubt on AI’s productivity impact, noting during …

Apple Card Promo Offers Uber Cash Back With Uber Eats

Apple Card Promo Offers $30 Uber Cash Back With Uber Eats

Published by skeptic

Apple Card and Uber One users can earn up to $30 Uber Cash through August 31 by using their ‌Apple Card‌ on Uber Eats. Users can earn $10 Uber Cash each month in June, July, and August by making one eligible order per month on Uber Eats using their ‌Apple Card‌. Uber One members can earn $10 Uber Cash on one eligible grocery or retail order per month, now through August 31, when you check out with your Apple Card on Uber Eats. Shop food, health and beauty, pet supplies, and more. You could earn up to a total of $30 in Uber Cash, awarded by Uber, to use on Uber Eats orders. ‌Apple Card‌ users are also eligible to receive a six-month free trial of Uber One when signing up with your ‌Apple Card‌ and Apple Pay. After the six-month trial, your Uber One subscription will automatically renew at $9.99 per month. In addition to these promos, Apple partners with multiple vendors to offer three percent Daily Cash back on ‌‌‌‌Apple Pay‌‌‌‌ purchases made …

Uber Builds Large Stake In Germany’s Delivery Hero As Takeover Speculation Builds

Uber Builds Large Stake In Germany’s Delivery Hero As Takeover Speculation Builds

Published by Jenni Sidey

Uber is exploring a potential takeover of Delivery Hero after building a large stake in the rival German food delivery company, Bloomberg News reports. This follows an earlier report that Uber had built a 19.5% stake. On Monday, Uber disclosed that it owns 19.5% of Delivery Hero, plus an additional 5.6% through options. The position was built with the help of Morgan Stanley traders, according to people familiar with the matter. Uber’s move to acquire Delivery Hero could be an attempt to expand Uber Eats’ global footprint and improve its competitive position against DoorDash outside the US. Delivery Hero operates in more than 60 countries, giving Uber exposure to markets where it is either underscaled or trailing its competitors. Map of Operatoins of Delivery Hero Brands “While Uber’s ultimate intentions on further stake-building remain unclear, we view the move as a clear endorsement of the strategic attractiveness of Delivery Hero’s asset base for Uber,” JPMorgan analysts wrote in a note. Earlier, Uber said it “currently” has no intention of increasing its stake in Delivery Hero …

‘Facing an existential threat’: How Uber is navigating clashes with trial attorneys, assault lawsuits and competition

‘Facing an existential threat’: How Uber is navigating clashes with trial attorneys, assault lawsuits and competition

Published by Sam Flores

Eighteen years ago, two computer engineers said to be frustrated by their experience ordering a taxi in Paris hatched a wild idea: a mobile app that would allow users to hail a ride from their smartphones. Their startup, known as Uber, initially clawed its way to success with a growth-at-all-costs strategy that sometimes involved operating without municipal consent, ignoring court orders and clashing with local regulations. That ethos catapulted the maverick company to the top of the ride-sharing business, with its gig drivers providing nearly 14 billion trips last year globally. Now, the San Francisco tech giant is at a crossroads, waging a bitter fight with state trial lawyers involving dueling ballot measures while it faces a raft of sexual assault lawsuits that could significantly increase its legal costs. The outcome of the fight could have ramifications not only for California consumers, but for Uber’s ability to finance a multibillion-dollar expansion into the all-important robotaxi business — where it faces increasing competition from Waymo and Tesla. “Uber is facing an existential threat where they’re not …

Uber turns on Waymo as it pours B+ into owning robotaxi alternatives

Uber turns on Waymo as it pours $10B+ into owning robotaxi alternatives

Published by skeptic

Uber is publicly trashing its robotaxi partner Waymo while simultaneously investing more than $10 billion to build its own autonomous vehicle fleet with Rivian, Lucid, and Nuro. The ride-hailing giant’s executives have spent the last few months taking direct shots at Waymo’s technology and deployment strategy — even as Waymo vehicles still operate on Uber’s platform in Austin and Atlanta. Uber execs go after Waymo According to a new Business Insider report, Uber executives have been painting AV-only operators like Alphabet’s Waymo as “less scalable” and “less reliable” than Uber’s hybrid approach, which mixes human drivers with robotaxis on a single ride-hailing platform. The attacks haven’t been subtle. Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli shared a video on X in April showing what he described as a “scary” encounter with a Waymo vehicle in San Francisco. The Waymo appeared to overtake a Muni bus in the wrong lane, squeezing between the bus and Neppalli’s car. He wrote: “Big fan of AVs, but perception ≠ judgment. Edge cases matter!” Advertisement – scroll for more content CEO Dara Khosrowshahi …

Uber has always wanted to be more than a ride; now it has reason to hurry

Uber has always wanted to be more than a ride; now it has reason to hurry

Published by skeptic

For years, Uber talked about becoming a super app. Then Waymo started picking up passengers in San Francisco, and the conversation grew more urgent. The company has been trying to embed itself inside the AV industry — as a data provider, an investor, and a distribution platform — but the consumer-facing bet may be just as important. Two weeks ago, Uber held its annual GO-GET product event in New York and announced something its executives had been circling for a long time: users in the U.S. can now book hotels inside the Uber app, through a partnership with Expedia Group, with access to more than 700,000 properties worldwide. Uber One members — the company’s subscription tier at $9.99 a month — get 20% off a rotating list of 10,000 hotels and 10% back in credits. Vacation rentals through Vrbo will follow later this year, along with restaurant reservations via OpenTable. In the meantime, a “Shop for Me” feature lets users order from stores that aren’t even on the platform. The announcements, taken together, were the …