I found this article (https://www.theinformation.com/how-uber-can-drive-profits https://www.theinformation.com/how-uber-can-drive-profits) from The Information

I found this article (https://www.theinformation.com/how-uber-can-drive-profits https://www.theinformation.com/how-uber-can-drive-profits) from The Information interesting since the "Uber will get to self-driving cars which makes them profitable" is brought as an argument all the time. TL;DR is that self-driving cars according to an internal Uber study (according to The Information) would only modestly increase their margins: "Doing without drivers will only increase Uber’s projected long-term net profit margin by as much as 5 percentage points, according to an Uber worker who’s seen internal data projected by that team. That’s in part because of expected municipal regulations on pricing related to autonomous vehicle services, this person said. Another factor is that Uber may have to purchase and maintain its own cars en masse, rather than relying on cars owned by drivers as it does now."