Strong earnings, forward guidance, and autonomous outlook key for investors

Uber (UBER) will report third quarter earnings before the bell on Tuesday as the ride-hailing giant looks to continue its strong run this year. The results follow a wave of deals Uber has made in the autonomous space.

Uber is expected to report Q3 revenue of $13.26 billion, per Bloomberg consensus, a 18% jump from a year ago. Uber is projected to post adjusted EPS of $0.91 on adjusted net income of $1.96 billion and EBITDA of $2.27 billion.

Last quarter, Uber’s highly watched metric of monthly active platform consumers (MAPCs) hit 180 million, up 15% year over year and topping estimates. Gross bookings also jumped 17% to $46.76 billion, also better than expected.

Read more: Live coverage of corporate earnings

This led Uber to project Q3 gross bookings in a range of $48.25 billion to $49.75 billion last quarter, with adjusted EBITDA of $2.19 billion to $2.29 billion, as well as to announce a massive $20 billion stock buyback last quarter.

Uber stock is up a healthy 62% year to date.

Uber’s third quarter also pushed forward how the company views its future — one that may be driverless.

Last week, Nvidia (NVDA) and Uber revealed that the two companies are partnering on what they described as the world’s largest network of nearly autonomous (Level 4) cars.

The partnership aims to build 100,000 vehicles beginning in 2027 using Nvidia’s Drive AGX Hyperion 10 platform and Drive AV software.

Nvidia said this system and collection of sensors are designed to enable Level 4 autonomy. Interestingly, earlier this summer, Lucid (LCID) partnered with Uber on a robotaxi service that would use Lucid EVs summoned on Uber’s platform.

The Lucid robotaxis would be powered by autonomous tech firm Nuro’s (NURO.PVT) Level 4 driving software, which Lucid said it would use for its commercial robotaxis.

Looking deeper into the future, starting next year, Joby (JOBY), which bought Blade’s passenger operations last month, will enable Uber users to book Blade helicopter and seaplane trips directly on the Uber app. Blade currently offers short helicopter rides as well as seaplane trips across various routes in the New York City metropolitan area and Southern Europe.

Uber and Joby working together is nothing new. The two companies have been collaborating since 2019, starting with a partnership on EVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) technology. In 2021, Joby acquired Uber’s Elevate unit, which was developing an “urban air mobility” product.

Pras Subramanian is Lead Auto Reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on X and on Instagram.