Why Uber? What do they really have, at the end of the day? They're one of several companies investing in driverless cars. They're competing with companies that have cash cows (e.g. Google and Apple) as well as companies with a century+ of car-making experience, from the ground up. Uber has a cool app and some name recognition.
If/when self-driving cars are a thing, why does anyone need uber? GM/Ford/Toyota/whomever all make their own cars and will presumably make the cars of tomorrow. If not, Tesla would be a solid bet. Again, all companies that MAKE cars. Apple & Google are probably betting on their technology being better and licensing it to manufacturers. Why would Uber have a better shot at any of this than the other players? They have a slick app and have successfully found a grey area where they push most liability and upkeep costs onto their not-employees. In some markets, by some measure, maybe they're profitable.
Now what? To get to $1T is either going to take a monumental shift in everything they've accomplished, or it's going to take some silly investors (or financial tricks). I'd say it's much more likely that in 15 years we look back at Uber as something closer to WebVan than they get a $1T market cap.
If/when self-driving cars are a thing, why does anyone need uber? GM/Ford/Toyota/whomever all make their own cars and will presumably make the cars of tomorrow. If not, Tesla would be a solid bet. Again, all companies that MAKE cars. Apple & Google are probably betting on their technology being better and licensing it to manufacturers. Why would Uber have a better shot at any of this than the other players? They have a slick app and have successfully found a grey area where they push most liability and upkeep costs onto their not-employees. In some markets, by some measure, maybe they're profitable.
Now what? To get to $1T is either going to take a monumental shift in everything they've accomplished, or it's going to take some silly investors (or financial tricks). I'd say it's much more likely that in 15 years we look back at Uber as something closer to WebVan than they get a $1T market cap.