That makes Uber a logical partner for autonomous vehicle (AV) companies. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi sees robotaxis as at $1 trillion opportunity in the U.S. alone, and he recently told analysts, "Uber can deliver the lowest operational costs for our AV partners because we are leaps and bounds ahead on every aspect of the go-to-market capabilities."

Uber and Baidu join forces in the self-driving taxi market, combining Uber's network with Baidu's Apollo Go robotaxi fleet that has completed over 11 million rides across 15 cities.