Uber's CPO on Hotels, Robotaxis, and the Company's AI Future

Uber's Chief Product Officer Sachin Kansal sat down with TechCrunch to offer a candid look at where the ride-hailing giant is headed. Central to his message is the idea that Uber has no interest in becoming a super-app that tries to do everything. Instead, the company wants to deepen its value in mobility and closely adjacent services, ensuring that every new feature has a clear reason to exist within the platform.

One of the most notable revelations was Uber's growing push into financial services. Kansal outlined ambitions to embed payment solutions, credit products, and other financial tools directly into the Uber app. For drivers in particular, this could mean access to earnings advances, insurance products, and banking features that have historically been out of reach for gig workers.

The relationship with Waymo, the autonomous vehicle pioneer, was described as increasingly nuanced. While Uber and Waymo collaborate in select markets, the two companies also find themselves in indirect competition as the robotaxi space matures. Kansal also shed light on Uber's new AV Labs initiative, a data-collection operation designed to accelerate the company's autonomous vehicle strategy and position Uber as a key infrastructure player in the self-driving ecosystem.

Artificial intelligence, Kansal explained, is quietly becoming the backbone of Uber's product improvements. From more accurate ETAs and dynamic pricing models to smarter driver-rider matching and fraud detection, AI is being woven into the fabric of every interaction. The goal is not to dazzle users with flashy AI features, but to make the experience seamlessly better in ways that riders and drivers will notice without necessarily knowing why.