Fifty-one dollars and 69 cents. That was the charge, including tip, for the 2.95-mile trip I took last May from my downtown New York City apartment to the West Side facility where Uber was holding its annual product event, called Go-Get. The ride-hailing company’s charges have been higher in recent years, and fluctuate in any case, but that was nuts.
As Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi knows, high rates are one consequence of trying to run his company as an actual business, as opposed to a scorched-earth feral growth machine. His predecessor, Travis Kalanick, had built an enormous, enthusiastic user base by subsidizing rides with the company’s vast reservoir of VC funding. Under Kalanick, Uber skirted regulations, shrugged off safety issues, and presided over a workplace rife with sexual harassment. After he got pushed out, it fell to Khosrowshahi, who left the top job at Expedia to take over as Uber’s CEO six years ago, to fix things—and find out once and for all whether Uber could turn a profit.
His grand plan was Uber-as-a-platform, one app that provides all kinds of rides and food delivery services. Amazon is the everything store; Khosrowshahi’s Uber wants to be the everything of motion. The versatility is paying off. During the pandemic, the rise of Uber Eats helped compensate for empty back seats in Uber vehicles. And while not in the black, the company is inching toward profitability. Gone are the ride subsidies. It’s a put-up-or-shut-up move that may flop when riders balk at high prices. Maybe they’ll flock to public transit, or taxis will make a comeback. (So far, people still seem to be swiping for rides.)
When Khosrowshahi addresses the crowd at Go-Get, decked in his customary dark sweater and slacks, he exudes calm and confidence. The world still regards Uber with a measure of suspicion—journalists seize on every instance of Uber rides gone wrong or drivers struggling to make a good living. But he feels he has won people’s trust enough to introduce a feature that only a few years ago would have seemed ridiculous: Uber for Teens, which asks parents to send their precious kids on unaccompanied rides. No one laughed.
After the event, WIRED sat down with Khosrowshahi to discuss Uber’s quest for profitability, its relationship with drivers and delivery people, and what Khosrowshahi thought when he watched the TV series Super Pumped, which made Uber look like a street gang with venture capital.
Steven Levy: You just announced Uber for Teens, for teenagers traveling alone. This reminds me of when Mark Zuckerberg, in the midst of a trust crisis, unveiled a feature called Facebook Dating. Why do this when it’s so easy to imagine what could go wrong?
Khosrowshahi: It was a deeply considered decision. When I came to Uber, we decided that safety was not going to be an afterthought, but a core principle. We started innovating in safety features, whether it’s, you know, “text to 911” or “track your ride” or making sure drivers take selfies so that you know they’re the driver you think they are. We’ve put all of those and more together to create a product that’s the safest way for teens to get around in the world. The parents can track the ride, and we have built-in audio recording turned on as a default. Listen, the world is unpredictable. Maybe the safest thing to do is stay home. But if you’re choosing to get out there in the world, we think Uber for Teens is the safest way.