Uber's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi recently commented on the future of self-driving cars in the rideshare industry during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call. He acknowledged that while developers like Tesla and Waymo are gradually rolling out autonomous vehicles in select cities, achieving a scale suitable for widespread rideshare operations will take significantly more time. Khosrowshahi emphasized that the commercialization of this technology is still a long way off due to crucial factors such as safety, regulatory variations across states, and high vehicle costs. Currently, Uber has partnered with Waymo to use self-driving cars in Phoenix, and plans to expand this initiative to Atlanta and Austin later this year. Khosrowshahi noted that these self-driving vehicles have to be much safer than human drivers to gain public trust and that operational challenges, such as maintenance, parking, and battery charging must also be addressed. Notably, Khosrowshahi does not foresee autonomy replacing Uber's human drivers entirely within the next five years, underscoring the transitional nature of current advancements in autonomous vehicle technology.