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Uber talks to banks and private equity firms about funding robotaxi expansion

Uber CEO Dara Khorowshahi revealed that the company is in discussions with banks and private equity firms to secure funding to develop its robotaxi business. The ride-hailing firm is betting on a massive roll-out of this nascent technology.

In Austin and Atlanta, the company offers robotaxis powered by Alphabet-owned Waymo through its ride-hailing application. In July, it also signed a $300-million partnership that will enable it to deploy over 20,000 electric vehicles made by Lucid, powered by Nuro's self-driving technology, in six years.

Khosrowshahi, on Wednesday, positioned the tie-ups in a larger plan that includes three robotaxi business model options: paying partners who own such vehicles at a fixed rate; sharing revenue with fleet operators; and owning vehicles but licensing software for autonomous technology.

The CEO stated that "we are talking with private equity players and we have spoken to banks." Once we can prove that these cars generate a lot of revenue per day, and have a good revenue model, there will be countless financing opportunities.

Uber has said that it will use a "modest portion" of its annual cash flow of around $7 billion to fund deployments. It may also sell minority shares in companies to help with the expansion.

Analysts say that the mass deployment of robotaxis could reduce Uber's driver-reliant operating costs and increase profitability.

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, and Waymo, U.S. leader in the market, have been racing to launch robotaxis despite strong regulatory scrutiny.

Waymo has a presence in five U.S. Cities, including San Francisco. Tesla launched its robotaxi service in Austin last June and began ride-hailing services in the Bay Area this month.

Uber has said that it hasn't seen any change in demand in Austin or San Francisco following the launch of Tesla's robotaxi services in these cities.

Ken Mahoney of Mahoney Asset Management said, "To many of these companies it seems this will be an worthwhile endeavor... there are lofty projections about the robotaxi sector's total market addressable." (Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni and Shinjini Ganguli)

(source: Reuters)