Uber's Product Chief on Expansion into Hotels, Robotaxis, and Strategic Focus
Uber has been quietly expanding its services beyond ride-hailing and delivery, introducing features like hotel bookings powered by Expedia, a 'shop for me' concierge service, and boat rentals in Europe. The company is also investing in financial services for drivers and merchants, while exploring AI integration to enhance user experiences.
Diversification Beyond Ride-Hailing and Delivery
In an interview with TechCrunch, Uber's Chief Product Officer Sachin Kansal highlighted the company's recent additions, including hotel bookings, boat rentals, and expanded shopping features. These moves are part of Uber's focus on travel, as 1.5 billion trips on the platform occur outside users' home cities. Kansal emphasized that travel is a common use case for Uber users, who increasingly rely on the app for rides, food delivery, and now hotel bookings.
'Travel really is, in my opinion, the third leg of the stool — we had rides, then we added eats, and now we are adding travel,' Kansal said.
Financial Services and Partnerships
Uber is also exploring financial services, particularly for drivers and merchants. The company offers the Uber Pro card, a debit card for drivers to manage earnings, and is experimenting with similar products for merchants. For consumers, Uber credits tie into the membership program, offering perks like cashback on hotel bookings.
When asked about offering a 'buy now, pay later' product, Kansal was cautious, stating that Uber prefers to partner with experts in the field rather than developing such services in-house.
Autonomous Vehicles and AV Labs
Uber's AV Labs, a six-month-old business unit, is focused on collecting driving data through sensor-equipped vehicles. This initiative aims to strengthen Uber's relationships with autonomous vehicle partners, including Waymo, while giving the company leverage in the competitive autonomous vehicle market.
'We are not in the race to be an L4 autonomy provider — what we are focusing on is laying down the race tracks so we can work with multiple players,' Kansal explained.
Despite competing with partners like Waymo in some cities, Uber sees value in a hybrid network of human drivers and autonomous vehicles to balance demand and supply.
AI Integration and Future Plans
AI is becoming increasingly integral to Uber's offerings. The company has introduced features like an earner assistant to help drivers maximize earnings and a grocery cart assistant for voice-based ordering on Uber Eats. Kansal also hinted at the potential for AI-driven trip planning, though he cautioned that such features must work well before being rolled out.
'AI is going to be a huge enabler of that, where I can leave the complexity to the platform and just tell an agent what exactly I want,' Kansal said.
Strategic Focus
While Uber is expanding its services, Kansal stressed that the company is not aiming to become an 'everything app' like some Asian super-apps. Instead, Uber is focused on providing value to users and leveraging its strengths in ride-hailing, delivery, and now travel.
'The bigger percentage of my time, or what keeps me up at night, is are we providing our users all the value that we can provide,' Kansal said.