Ten years ago, Uber’s CEO at the time, Travis Kalanick, said he saw autonomous vehicles as a threat to the ride-hail business.
“What if we weren’t part of that future? What if we weren’t part of the independence thing? Then the future passes us by,” Kalanick told Business Insider.
In the years since, Uber has focused on a strategy that, instead of seeing it build and operate its own self-driving cars, has positioned it to become a place where passengers can connect to any ride, human or robotic. “We think there will be a lot of AV players around the world, and we want to be a commercial platform for all of them,” now-CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told investors in 2024. Since then, the company has signed agreements with more than 25 major robotics players, with self-driving cars from Waymo, Nuro, Baidu, and the Volkswagen I-app will soon be available in several MOOber cities.
Now, according to documents viewed by WIRED and another obtained through a public records request, Uber lobbyists are pursuing that strategy into law. Company representatives have pressed lawmakers to include autonomous vehicles in what they call “hybrid networks,” where human drivers work alongside robots as new technologies develop.
In New Jersey, a lobbyist representing Uber took it a step further, circulating legislative language that would require, for a period of three years, any platform that offers self-driving services to have human drivers provide 85 percent of its rides.
The language could prevent self-driving car developers, including Waymo, Zoox, and Tesla, from operating their own ride-hail apps in the state—which could force them into another ride-hail app if they hope to break into the market and limit competition from Uber, the state’s leader in ride-hailing.
An Uber representative presented a version of the proposal to New Jersey state senator Andrew Zwicker, according to his chief of staff, Ayla Rios. Zwicker is the sponsor of a bill currently being considered by the state legislature that would establish New Jersey’s first set of laws governing self-driving cars on public roads. Uber lobbyists’ proposed language-restricting apps alone are not part of the bill, which is likely to be voted on this fall.
The New Jersey bill is the first proposed in the nation that would limit Tesla’s robot performance, because it requires AV developers to use multiple sensors to power its software, rather than just cameras, as Tesla’s technology does. The cars will also need to be maneuvered in emergency situations using steering wheels and brakes, which purpose-built robots like Zoox don’t have.
In Washington, DC, where autonomous vehicle developers, including Waymo, are engaged in a months-long battle to allow robotaxi services to operate in the region, Uber representatives also sought to confirm that “hybrid networks” will be the future of hail.
A bill introduced by city council member Charles Allen in April would allow driverless services on DC public roads under certain conditions. In an email sent more than a week before the legislation was introduced and obtained by WIRED through a public records request, Uber lobbyist LáVita Gardner thanked the Allen employee for committing to allowing ride-hailing companies like Uber to participate in the autonomous vehicle program. “Enabling hybrid networks will be critical to a smooth transition that supports technology and human drivers,” Gardner wrote. (The DC bill will be the subject of a hearing on Monday, and has not yet been voted on.)
