Uber Pivots to AV Partners, Stock Ranks 52nd in Daily Trading Volume

On August 4, 2025, Uber (UBER) rose 1.75% with a trading volume of $1.33 billion, ranking 52nd in the day’s market activity. The company is recalibrating its autonomy strategy to reduce capital intensity while expanding its role in the autonomous vehicle ecosystem. Uber has shifted from in-house development of self-driving technology to strategic partnerships with AV leaders such as Waymo, Pony.ai, and Baidu’s Apollo Go. These collaborations enable the deployment of autonomous ride-hailing services in cities like Austin and Atlanta, with plans for broader expansion. By acting as a software and demand layer rather than a hardware builder, Uber aims to leverage its platform strengths in routing, matching algorithms, and payment systems to capture value from autonomous mobility without bearing the risks of vehicle production.

Cost optimization is central to Uber’s long-term margin potential. Driver payouts currently account for 70% of ride costs, and a shift to autonomous vehicles could significantly reduce this burden. While Uber will share revenue with AV partners, the lower operational costs of driverless fleets and 24/7 availability are expected to enhance profitability over time. Beyond rides, Uber is testing robotic delivery bots for food and small packages in urban areas, targeting high-labor-cost markets. These bots, operated by partners like Avride and Serve, offer a scalable solution for short-haul deliveries, potentially improving Uber Eats’ margins. Additionally, the company is piloting autonomous freight with Aurora, signaling ambitions to automate logistics across the entire supply chain.

The strategy of purchasing the top 500 stocks by daily trading volume and holding them for one day delivered a 166.71% return from 2022 to the present, outperforming the benchmark return of 29.18% by 137.53%. This highlights the significance of liquidity concentration in short-term performance, particularly in volatile markets, where high-volume stocks experience pronounced price movements driven by institutional and algorithmic trading activity.