I think Uber's essential mistake is to go from "autonomous vehicles are the only way our business model makes sense" to "we should be building autonomous vehicles".

Their expertise is in UI, routing algorithms, and business development. There is nothing in their background that indicates they should have any competitive advantage in building autonomous vehicles over Google/Waymo, the proverbial 800-pound gorilla of everything AI, or GM/Cruise, with experience in safety-critical engineering and oodles of capital to throw at the problem.

Sure, base your business model on the eventual development of driverless cars, but buy the damned things from the professionals, eh?