Why DoorDash’s Autonomous Strategy Beats Uber’s Hodgepodge

Uber’s decision to divest its stake in Serve, the autonomous delivery robot company that was spun out of Uber in 2021, was more interesting than it may appear at first glance. When I looked into it, I came to realize that Serve is actually a publicly listed company now. It was founded inside Postmates as a division back in 2017 but Postmates itself was acquired by Uber in 2020. While Uber was a very close partner (and shareholder) of Serve from the very beginning of Serve’s independent existence, that started to unravel in 2026. While going through Serve’s earnings call, some historical contexts as well as DoorDash’s approach to autonomous delivery, I came away thinking that Uber is taking a somewhat risky approach long-term which I will expand behind the paywall.

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