The corporate that pulled onto the highway nearly 16 years ago as UberCab more and more appears much less involved in driving than in what customers do earlier than and after summoning a experience by its app.
The most recent proof of Uber’s shift towards turning into a broader providers platform got here at its Go-Get event this week in New York, the place the corporate led with hotel keys as an alternative of automobile keys.
“I consider that Uber really affords one service: We provide you with your time again,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi mentioned in the beginning of the corporate’s roughly 40-minute presentation.
The options unveiled invited a brand new comparability for Uber, to not ride-hail rival Lyft, however to one in every of its company neighbors in San Francisco: Airbnb.
Very similar to Airbnb’s expansion into “experiences” and different providers, alongside its transfer into listing boutique hotels, Uber’s newest choices recommend related ambitions to make its app indispensable all through a whole journey.
However ambitions that sweeping, captured within the “One app for everything” headline of Uber’s press launch, warrant scrutiny over what prospects really acquire from this single-app comfort.
(See additionally: Elon Musk’s still-unrealized plans to show X into an “everything” app.)
Uber, however for inns
Think about the in-app resort reserving characteristic that opened the presentation, which primarily embeds the hotel-search performance of Khosrowshahi’s former employer, Expedia, and routes it by Uber’s cost system.
“Reserving a resort on Uber goes to really feel as simple as reserving a experience,” VP of Product Amit Fulay mentioned onstage.
Subscribers to Uber’s $9.99-per-month Uber One membership, the topic of a Federal Commerce Fee lawsuit filed in April 2025 over allegedly deceptive marketing, obtain extra perks: a minimum of 20% financial savings at what small print on a slide described as “a rolling listing of properties,” together with a ten% rebate in Uber One credit.
As any professional in travel-loyalty programs can let you know, reserving a resort by a third-party web site usually means forfeiting rewards factors or elite-status credit inside a resort chain’s personal program. Uber’s strategy successfully assigns that loyalty position to itself, a lot as Expedia does by its One Key rewards program.
That might nonetheless work in your favor, relying on the way you worth Uber One credit in contrast with factors from resort manufacturers like Marriott. However vacationers ought to perceive that this trade-off exists.
Fulay famous that Uber’s app will enable customers to filter resort listings by value, critiques, facilities, and different standards, however the default rating stays unclear. A search I ran throughout Uber’s occasion for a downtown Chicago resort from Could 8 by Could 10 surfaced the Trump Worldwide Lodge and Tower as the highest consequence, with a reduced whole of $1,322. Even amongst luxurious properties close to the Loop, higher choices can be found.
I couldn’t repeat that search after returning to D.C., the place my copy of the app listed resort search as “Coming Quickly.” Representatives for Uber didn’t say whether or not you would set preferences within the app to rank or downrank resort manufacturers, so on this situation you might not have the ability to 86 Trump.
Uber, however for journey recommendation
One other new characteristic builds on a habits Khosrowshahi proudly highlighted onstage: “We’re the primary app that you simply open whenever you get into your metropolis.”
Journey Mode, which can quickly seem within the app when customers go to different cities, is designed to maintain them returning. In the event you land at one of many 29 airports the place Uber affords wayfinding (although the corporate has not but printed the total listing), the app will present strolling instructions out of your terminal to the designated ride-hail pickup space.
That kind of steerage may show genuinely helpful in unfamiliar airports, which helps clarify why airways like United and Delta have supplied related options for years.
However not like Uber’s commonplace experience search, Journey Mode surfaces solely rides bookable by Uber. Which may be a sensible possibility at many airports (Las Vegas involves thoughts), however in others the design may steer vacationers towards unnecessarily costly rides whereas overlooking cheaper public transit choices that, particularly throughout rush hour, might get them downtown quicker.
Uber’s personal presentation supplied an inadvertent instance. A screenshot of Journey Mode confirmed fares of $80 to $90 from JFK Airport to a resort on Central Park South in Manhattan. Mid-afternoon Thursday, Google Maps and Apple Maps listed shorter journey instances for that route by way of the JFK AirTrain and New York Metropolis subway, regardless of requiring two transfers. The cost per rider: $11.75.
In an interview afterward, Fulay mentioned Uber intends to broaden the vary of transportation decisions proven on this interface.
“We do have a trains product,” he mentioned, referencing Uber’s in-app train booking within the U.Okay. “Our objective is to point out you numerous multimodal choices.”
Different elements of Journey Mode do recommend smoother journey, together with “curated” native restaurant suggestions with built-in OpenTable reservations, in addition to the choice to have meals, clothes, and journey equipment delivered on to your resort. However vacationers might need to keep away from following one instance featured in Uber’s presentation: paying $15.99 for an Apple-branded USB-C cable.
Uber, however for private customers
One other Uber announcement Wednesday felt, a minimum of partly, like an effort to revive the spirit of dot-com-era delivery service Kozmo.com: an upcoming characteristic known as “Store for Me.”
The service will enable time-strapped prospects to submit an in depth description of an merchandise they need from a retailer, together with a photograph, if obligatory, and have one in every of Uber’s highest-rated couriers go to that location—even when the retailer will not be a part of Uber’s platform—buy the merchandise after confirming it meets the shopper’s wants, after which ship it.
What stays much less clear is how a lot couriers will earn for what seems to be a comparatively high-touch service.
Uber executives didn’t handle compensation particulars in the course of the Go-Get occasion, although Fulay mentioned afterward that the earnings could be “compelling.” Uber did roll out a tip guarantee for couriers in early April, however prospects would nonetheless be smart to tip generously for a service like this.
The employees powering Uber’s comfort financial system remained largely invisible all through the New York presentation. Most notably, firm leaders didn’t focus on the comparatively restricted measures Uber has taken to offset rising fuel costs for drivers as gasoline costs have climbed amid the Iran war.
No such tipping considerations apply to the AI-powered procuring instruments Uber is including to its Cart Assistant, first launched in February. One characteristic will enable customers to {photograph} a meal, have AI generate a listing of possible substances, after which robotically assemble a grocery order based mostly on that evaluation.
Uber’s highway forward
Seeing transportation take a again seat at an Uber occasion felt putting, given the corporate’s latest historical past. Final yr’s Go-Get occasion, for instance, centered on more affordable ride options, together with bus-like Route Share scheduled service and shared autonomous-vehicle rides.
However Uber’s personal earnings reports underscore its evolution right into a broader providers firm. Operational metrics from the fourth quarter of 2025 present the hole narrowing between its “Mobility” and “Supply” divisions, with supply rising quicker in each gross bookings ($27.4 billion to mobility’s $25.4 billion) and income ($8.2 billion to $4.9 billion).
Towards that backdrop, one closing characteristic unveiled at this yr’s Go-Get occasion comes as little shock: Uber’s app residence display screen, which already elevated supply and different non-transportation providers in a 2023 redesign, will quickly add a “One Search” interface that surfaces all related service choices for a consumer’s question as an alternative of defaulting to transportation.
