Just how much could autonomy benefit ride-hailing businesses?

It is no secret that the ride-hailing giants continue to lose money. Over 2020, Uber’s net losses amounted to roughly US$6.7bn. Despite the pandemic, this represented an improvement on 2019’s US$8.51bn, but revenue suffered, down year-on-year from US$13bn to US$11.1bn. Lyft also continues to experience losses: Q1 net loss in 2021 amounted to US$427.3m, worse than 2020’s figure for the same period of US$398.1m.