Uber’s product chief on hotels, robotaxis, and why the company doesn’t want to be “everything for everyone”

Uber is pushing well past its familiar rides-and-deliveries business, and the executive steering that expansion says the goal isn't to turn the app into a catch-all "super-app" but to add services that fit naturally alongside what the company already does. In a recent interview with TechCrunch, Uber's Chief Product Officer, Sachin Kansal, laid out the thinking behind a wave of additions rolled out over the past year, including hotel reservations, a personal-shopping assistant, and rentals for recreational boats.

The hotel feature, powered through a partnership with Expedia, lets travelers book lodging directly inside the Uber app rather than treating Uber purely as a way to get to and from a destination. Alongside it, Uber introduced a "shop for me" tool that functions like a concierge, handling errands or purchases on a customer's behalf. In parts of Europe, the app has also begun offering boat rentals, a niche but telling sign of how far the company is willing to stretch its core offering.

Kansal indicated these additions weren't chosen at random; each went through scrutiny before making it into the app, and plenty of proposed ideas reportedly didn't survive that process. The company's stated aim, according to the conversation, is deliberately narrower than becoming an "everything app" on the model of Asian super-apps such as Grab, which bundle transportation, payments, food delivery, and more under one roof. Whether Uber ultimately drifts toward that broader model or keeps its additions more selective remains unresolved.

Beyond consumer-facing features, the interview touched on Uber's growing interest in financial services, an area the company has been exploring as a potential new revenue stream tied to its existing driver and rider base. Details remain limited, but the ambition signals Uber sees itself increasingly as a platform for everyday transactions rather than solely a mobility provider.

The discussion also addressed Uber's evolving and increasingly intricate partnership with Waymo, the autonomous-vehicle company under Alphabet. The two firms have collaborated on robotaxi deployments in select markets, but the relationship has grown more complex as both companies pursue their own autonomous-driving strategies, raising questions about how cooperative or competitive that dynamic will remain as self-driving technology matures.

Tied to that broader autonomous-vehicle push, Uber has stood up a new initiative called AV Labs, focused on gathering and managing data relevant to self-driving operations. The effort suggests Uber wants a stronger hand in the data infrastructure underpinning robotaxi services, rather than relying entirely on partners like Waymo for that layer of the business.

Artificial intelligence is also making its way into more visible corners of the platform, according to Kansal, with changes expected to become noticeable to both riders and drivers rather than remaining behind-the-scenes engineering. While specifics were limited, the comments point to Uber weaving AI more directly into trip-matching, support, or in-app guidance in ways users will start to encounter directly. Taken together, the additions outlined in the interview depict a company testing how far it can extend its footprint without diluting the core services that built its user base.

Source: TechCrunch