Why Uber Stock Could Be the Biggest Winner in Autonomous Vehicles

Going Public With Ross Mandell

Ross Mandell explores Uber's strategic evolution from a ride-sharing app to a global distribution platform for the autonomous vehicle revolu

Key takeaways

Uber's trailing 12-month free cash flow has officially crossed the $10 billion mark for the first time.
The company is shifting from a driver-based model to a 'commercialization platform' for autonomous mobility.
Uber's strategy involves partnering with multiple AV winners like Waymo, Zoox, and Aurora rather than betting on a single technology.
CEO Dara Khosrowshani demonstrated significant confidence by purchasing approximately $10 million in Uber stock recently.
The business leverages massive data density regarding passenger demand, timing, and geographic patterns to optimize autonomous fleets.

Main topics

Uber's Autonomous Vehicle Strategy
Financial Performance and Free Cash Flow
The Marketplace Model vs. Service Provider

Notable quotes

Uber doesn't need to beat everybody. Uber needs everybody to need Uber.

Conclusion

Investors should evaluate Uber as a critical infrastructure layer for

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) For many of us, going further isn't a choice. It's a feeling we can't ignore. Because ambition has a way of outgrowing where it began. Turning dreams into direction. Every journey brings us closer to the life we imagine. So, where will your journey take you? Etihad. Beyond Borders. Speaker 2 (0:29) Uber has gone from a company Wall Street questioned for years to a business generating billions in cash. Now the stock has pulled back. Insiders are buying and the next leg of the story is starting to take shape. This is where you need to start paying attention. Speaker 2 (0:57) What's shaking, everybody? My name is Ross Mandel. Welcome to Going Public. Today, I want to talk about a company almost everybody knows. You probably have the app on your phone right now. You may have used it this week. You may have used it today. But I'm not sure investors fully understand what this company is trying to become. Because when I say Uber, most people still think about a guy pulling up in a Toyota Camry to take you to the airport. I think that picture is becoming a little bit outdated. Uber is increasingly becoming something much bigger. A global transportation marketplace. A delivery network. A freight network. And potentially one of the most important distribution platforms for autonomous vehicles anywhere in the world. And that changes the conversation around this stock. Because here is the question investors need to start asking. What if autonomous driving does not destroy Uber? What if autonomous driving makes Uber more valuable? Think about that. Because that is almost the exact opposite of what the market has been afraid of. And we're going to get into all of it. The company, the numbers, the stock. Aurora, Waymo, Zooks, Neuro, Lucid, Rivian, and why I think the next several years could completely change the way investors value Uber. Now, let's start with the business today. Uber just reported another very, very strong quarter. In the second quarter of 2026, gross bookings reached approximately $58 billion. Trips grew 18 % from the prior year to roughly 3.9 billion trips in one quarter. Revenue came in around $14.2 billion. Operating income was approximately $1.9 billion. Adjusted EBITDA was about $2.8 billion. And maybe the number I care about the most, trailing 12-month free cash flow, crossed $10 billion for the first time in Uber's history. $10 billion in free cash flow. This is not the Uber that Wall Street used to make fun of for burning through money. This is a real business producing real cash. And I think that transformation gets overlooked. Uber spent many years building density. Drivers, customers, restaurants, merchants, logistics, payments. Insurance relationships, city relationships, mapping data, demand patterns, all of that infrastructure cost a fortune to build. But once you have hundreds of millions of customers using one platform, the economics begin to look very different. And that's where this gets very interesting. Uber ended 2025 with more than 200 million monthly users, completing more than 40 million trips every single day. 40 million trips a day. That means Uber knows something extraordinarily valuable. Where people want to go, when they want to go, how much they'll pay, where the demand suddenly spikes, where vehicles just sit idle, where airport traffic builds, what neighborhoods are busy at 8 a.m., which ones are busy at midnight. The data becomes extremely important when the vehicle showing up no longer has a human driver sitting behind the wheel. Imagine, here's one of the most important things I want investors to understand. Building an autonomous vehicle is one problem. Keeping that autonomous vehicle busy all day is another problem entirely. An autonomous vehicle sitting in a parking lot is not making any money. So imagine your company. that has developed an incredible self-driving system. You have the technology. You have the vehicle. Speaker 1 (5:06) For many of us, going further isn't a choice. It's a feeling we can't ignore because ambition has a way of outgrowing where it began, turning dreams into direction. Every journey brings us closer to the life we imagine. Speaker 1 (5:29) So, where will your journey take you? Etihad. Beyond Borders. Speaker 2 (5:36) You even have regulatory approval. Congratulations. Now what? Who is going to fill that vehicle with passengers? Who knows where the demand is? Who's going to handle dispatch? Who manages charging? Who deals with fleet operations? Who deals with insurance? Who deals with the cities? Who deals with customers when something goes wrong? That is where Uber wants to live. And Uber has been remarkably clear about it. The company says its ambition is to become the world's leading commercialization platform for autonomous mobility. Uber currently has autonomous vehicles live on its network in seven cities and said it was on track for as many as 15 by the end of this year. Even more important, Uber says autonomous vehicle partners have committed roughly 120,000 vehicles to its network over the coming years. 120,000 vehicles. That