Uber’s shares slipped 12% year‑to‑date after the company announced a Q3 bookings outlook that only met analysts’ expectations. The stock fell as much as 6.5% to $67.30 during the day, the biggest drop since February 4.
The company projected total gross bookings of $58.25 billion to $60.25 billion for the quarter ending in September. Analysts had expected $59.3 billion on average. Uber said currency headwinds cut about one percentage point from the growth it had forecast.
Adjusted earnings per share for the quarter are expected to be 84 to 88 cents, which is in line with Wall Street estimates. This guidance, however, did not lift investor confidence.
Trip volume, which includes ridesharing and deliveries, grew 18% to 3.87 billion. That was slightly below the 3.9 billion analysts had projected. Uber blamed the slowdown on Brazil, its largest market.
Gross bookings of $58 billion beat the $57.2 billion expected by analysts. The higher figure was helped by a surge in demand during the World Cup, the company said.
The earnings report will set expectations for the wider ride‑hailing and food‑delivery sector. DoorDash, Lyft and Instacart are scheduled to report earnings later this week.
Uber plans to invest more than $10 billion in robotaxi partnerships over the next few years. Executives noted that most of the autonomous‑vehicle deals announced last year will take years to deliver results.
Investors remain uneasy as Waymo, a key partner, has begun launching driverless rides on its own app rather than through Uber. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Uber is not dependent on a single partner.
Zoox rides will become available on the Uber app in Las Vegas later this year. Amazon’s robotaxi unit announced it will start charging fares on its own app next week.
The company will also launch robotaxis with UK startup Wayve Technologies in London. Those vehicles will have a safety driver on board and will operate under a private‑hire licence.
Khosrowshahi said Uber aims to be the leading commercialization platform for robotaxis. Success requires demand aggregation, smart dispatch, vehicle integration, charging infrastructure, financing, insurance and close work with regulators.
By year‑end, Uber expects robotaxis in up to 15 cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Zurich, Madrid and Tokyo. It already has autonomous vehicles in seven cities, but the deployments are still small in scale.