R&D is the only way that they survive in the long term. Uber's entire plan is just to keep hemorrhaging money until autonomous vehicles come online. They just did not expect that to be as hard of a problem as it has turned out to be.
Frankly, the R&D spend is the least of their worries. They recently trimmed some fat from their marketing department[1] but the subsidized rides problem continues to be the biggest issue they face financially.
[1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/29/technology/uber-job-cuts....
Try hailing a cab in Thailand, Indonesia or Malaysia. They will ask your destination and quote you 5-10x meter fare. Use a ride hailing app and you get approximately the meter fare.
Uber is not a tech company. It’s a taxi-company with a fancy app.
There’s literally no reason their operating expenses should be this big.
I mean, is there a chance these three companies develope autonomous vehicles and decide NOT to compete in ride sharing?
Also Uber as a company has zero experience of owning and maintaining a fleet of vehicles. They’ve entirely sidestepped that problem. What evidence is there they can do it better than anyone who does do it, like say Hertz?
The vehicles get told to go from point A to point B and does safely and effectively. Uber still plays the role of interacting with the customers, "booking" a car for them, collecting payments, etc.
Autonomous vehicles will never work in the chaos of Delhi or Jakarta's traffic