Uber Technologies Inc Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Thanks for taking my questions. I have two, one on autonomous and one on the core rides business. So the first one, Dara, is on autonomous. As you think about the portfolio of assets you have at the company, how do you think philosophically about investing more in autonomous assets, be it first-party car fleet or other fleet management tools? Or where are you on sort of the portfolio of the current assets from an autonomous perspective? And then on the core business, can you just talk to us a little bit about how you think about puts and takes on rides, incremental margins, and sort of profitability in the first quarter and throughout 2025? Thanks.

Question: Brian Nowak - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Great. Thank you, both. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 05, 2025 / 1:00PM, UBER.N - Q4 2024 Uber Technologies Inc Earnings Call

Question: Eric Sheridan - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Thank you so much for taking the questions. Maybe building on Brian's question on supply and just widening it out a little bit in both businesses. You talked on prior earnings calls about sort of extending the network as a potential stimulant for rider growth and supply density. Can you talk a little bit about those efforts and how they continue to scale and how we should be thinking about them as a potential growth driver for 2025 and beyond as you continue to scale into more areas of mobility? And then on the delivery side, any update on user behavior? Obviously, the array of supply that's available to a shopper today is very different than it was 12, 18 months ago. What is that doing to user behavior, frequency, basket size? How should we be thinking about supply impacting those dynamics in the delivery business? Thank you.

Question: Justin Post - Bank of America - Analyst : Great. Thanks. Appreciate it. A couple of questions on the prepared remarks. Dara, you mentioned nine different AV companies and also OEMs in your prepared remarks. US-centric, we're only releasing two companies with really high visibility right now. Can you talk about how you think the market could evolve from here, and why it might not be just two companies and what you're seeing globally? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 05, 2025 / 1:00PM, UBER.N - Q4 2024 Uber Technologies Inc Earnings Call And then on the constant currency outlook, I think you did 21% in Q4. You're guiding 17% to 21% in Q1. But also there's prepared remarks about kind of being stable. So maybe talk about what would be driving you down to 17% to 18% constant currency or what would cause you to be more at the higher end of the 21% in Q1. Thank you.

Question: Doug Anmuth - JPMorgan - Analyst : Great, thanks for taking the questions. I have two. Dara, first, just following up on the AV commercialization challenges. Curious if there's anything additional you can share on your experience with Waymo in Phoenix in just how you're helping drive utilization and demand there in particular? And then, Prashanth, just given the healthier pricing backdrop in rides that we're seeing through '25, can you just talk about how you're thinking about sustainability of insurance costs and those slower insurance price increases through the year? Thank you.

Question: Michael Morton - MoffettNathanson LLC - Analyst : Hey, thank you for the question and appreciate the new remarks on AVs. If I could follow up on a question -- on a comment Dara made earlier in just general business models with AV. When you talk about securing supply from OEMs, are you speaking about Uber buying cars directly? And then when you're thinking over the long term about potential business models with AVs, could you talk about an agency model versus a merchant model of renting AVs for today? And then a question we get from investors is, how much of your global mobility business do you see being addressable by autonomous vehicles due to different driver costs in certain markets compared to the AV costs? Thank you so much.

Question: Nikhil Devnani - Bernstein - Analyst : Hi, thank you for taking the question. Dara, last time you talked about price elasticity, and today, the letter talks about affordability. And the Q1 EBITDA guide suggests it's starting to moderate that profit growth. First, how much of this EBITDA guide is impacted by FX? And then bigger picture, I guess, the skeptical take would be that pricing was a tailwind for the business for several years. We're now hitting that ceiling. And as you push more on affordability, it's going to be a headwind to margins going forward. So in your view, why is that not the right take? How do you eventually get a good return on these lower-cost rides and drive operating leverage in the mobility business if you're leaning into that value proposition for consumers. Thank you.