Uber says it’s doing better in markets where it has autonomous vehicles

On Uber’s earnings call today, the company said markets where it has autonomous vehicles are outperforming markets without them.

“The overall US market is strong, but we’re finding that, for example, growth in Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta was more than twice the rest of the US,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on the call Tuesday morning. He also noted that human driver earnings in those markets outpaced the rest of the US.

As of September, Google’s Waymo had more than 100 vehicles operating in Austin and “dozens” in Atlanta, where it’s partnered with Uber to offer Waymo rides exclusively through the Uber app. Waymo has more than 400 vehicles in Phoenix, where it has a partnership with Uber in which consumers can be matched with a Waymo vehicle, but Waymo primarily uses its own app there.

While he said it’s too early to tell how the AV business, which is not profitable, affects Uber’s business overall, Khosrowshahi said the relative growth is a “good signal.”

Uber said it expects to have autonomous vehicle deployments on its network in at least 10 cities by the end of next year.

Data earlier this year from ride-share comparison app Obi found that consumers were willing to pay more for autonomous rides, citing a notable preference by users of driverless car services to be in a car without a driver.

“I attribute higher demand for AVs to two reasons: a) novelty and ridership enthusiasm for a new experience and b) once consumers have taken rides it’s easy to see that the user experience in an AV is far superior,” Obi CEO Ashwini Anburajan told Sherwood News. “It provides privacy, comfort and safety, and all in a really nice car. The premiums in price are being supported by consumer enthusiasm.”