Uber: Only 4 Rides and 500 Orders Came From AI Agents at Halloween
Of roughly 320 million trips and orders during Halloween week, Uber says AI agents booked just four rides and about 500 Uber Eats orders.
SUMO· the number puzzle
Dialo· learn languages by speaking
ediviewer· read EDI files like documents
giftdetect· the right gift in minutesAI agents are pitched as the next way to buy almost anything, but Uber's numbers suggest shoppers are not yet handing over the controls. During Halloween week, one of its busiest of the year, Uber processed about 320 million transactions, covering both rides and Uber Eats orders. Only four rides and roughly 500 food orders came from AI agents acting on behalf of users.
Uber CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy gave the figures during the company's third-quarter earnings presentation. It is the first time Uber has broken out how many orders come from AI agents. The quarter itself was strong, with 4.1 billion trips and $59.8 billion in gross bookings.
DoorDash tells a similar story
A week earlier, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu acknowledged that third-party agents had generated only a few hundred orders in total, not per week but since they have existed.
The contrast with the hype is sharp. Meta's personal agent Muse launched on September 8 and within a week was the most downloaded free app on the US App Store. Meta says it has more than 10 million users, many of whom use it to shop. Startup Instinct closed its latest round at a $10 billion valuation.
Why people skip the agent
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi hinted at the reason: booking a ride in the Uber app takes an average of 50 seconds, and repeating a favorite Uber Eats order takes about 90 seconds. At those speeds, explaining the task to an agent can take longer than doing it yourself.
Agents may make more sense for chores nobody enjoys, such as canceling a subscription, dealing with paperwork, hunting for deals or comparing products.
That does not mean the situation is permanent. Uber says it is open to working with AI companies, but its main strategy is to make its own app so simple that delegating is not worth it. There is also a commercial barrier: Amazon blocked Muse citing security, and an agent does not see ads, promotions or lure products that drive impulse purchases, which affects retailers' profits.
Apps worth a look
SUMO: the number puzzleTap the right tiles, add them up, hit the target. Easy to learn, hard to master. Free, for all ages.
Dialo: learn languages by speakingTalk to an AI conversation partner; every sentence comes back corrected and explained in your language. 9 languages, A1 to C2.
ediviewer: read EDI files like documentsOpen EDIFACT and X12 messages, see every segment explained, convert to JSON/XML, export PDF and Excel. Runs locally, no upload.
giftdetect: the right gift in minutesPick who it is for, the occasion and their personality. The search engine reads product descriptions from local shops and ranks what fits. Free, no sign-up.
More from this day
See all →
ByteDance Seedream 5.5 Handles Up to 100 Consecutive Image Edits
Magenta Solar Panels in Sweden Grow Broccoli, but 25 Days Slower
Windows Update Certificates Expire in 2027: Old PCs at Risk
