Gig economy and autonomous vehicle analysis: Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Tesla, Waymo, and the race for autonomous mobility.
Gig economy and autonomous vehicle analysis: Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Tesla, Waymo, and the race for autonomous mobility.
Sonder filed for bankruptcy in October after burning through over a billion in capital. The problem wasn't the idea—it was the economics of renting apartments and pretending you're running a hotel
Sweetgreen just posted a $36.1 million loss for Q3—nearly double last year's loss. Same-store sales dropped 9.5%. They slashed their full-year revenue forecast from $700-715 million down to $682-688...
Tesla claims Cybercab production starts April 2026. The timeline probably slips. But if they pull it off, ride-sharing economics change fundamentally.
Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash all reported Q3 earnings November 4-5. Uber missed estimates for the first time in quarters. DoorDash posted its first profit as a public company but stock dropped 17%. Lyft hit $1 billion free cash flow but missed EPS. Three companies, three completely different stories.
The shareholder vote passed. But the structure means Musk only gets paid if Tesla hits aggressive growth targets. The real story is what it says about retail versus institutional power.
Lyft missed Q3 EPS by 60% but the stock jumped 7%. Wall Street cared about one thing: $1.03 billion in free cash flow for the first time ever. That's the metric that actually matters.
DoorDash beat Q3 revenue and showed continued profitability. The stock dropped 17%—worst day ever. CEO Tony Xu's plan to spend 'several hundred million dollars' in 2026 triggered the selloff. Classic conflict: investors want cash back, DoorDash wants growth.
Sonos reported strong Q4 2025 results and claims they've restored software quality after the May 2024 disaster. But their app is still glitchy, and they're about to make it worse by adding AI features.
Waymo announced robotaxi launches in Detroit, Las Vegas, and San Diego, targeting 1 million weekly rides by end of 2026. They're already at 100,000+ weekly rides. This is what execution at scale looks like—and it's widening the gap between Waymo and everyone else.
Zoox's Hayward facility is the first purpose-built robotaxi factory in the US, with capacity for 10,000 vehicles annually. They're currently producing one per day. The gap between capacity and production tells you everything about where autonomous vehicles are right now.