Why Uber, Lyft Shares Are Speeding Up In Friday's Premarket

Ride-hailing companies Uber Technologies, Inc. UBER and Lyft, Inc. LYFT are rising in premarket trading on Friday.

The shares of Uber and its smaller peer Lyft were reacting to electric vehicle maker Tesla, Inc. TSLA announcing that a rival offering from its stable, the Cybercab, will go into production in 2026 or possibly even in 2027. If Tesla had been quick with a superior offering armed with its unsupervised self-driving technology, Uber and Lyft might have seen their market share erode.

Ahead of the event, Future Fund LLC’s Gary Black had warned Tesla investors not to hope for an immediate launch of the robotaxi with supervised full self-driving technology.

He said Tesla should subsidize rides on its rideshare app. and require all drivers to drive Tesla vehicles and, if possible, be highly rated on other rideshare apps.

The penetrating pricing strategy of offering rides at lower prices than competition including Uber and Lyft would increase awareness about the app and also lure users to it, Black said, adding that Tesla should use its cash reserves for it.

For the next two years at least, Uber and Lyft can have much of their market to themselves. They only have to contend with Alphabet, Inc.’s GOOGL GOOG Waymo and General Motors Corp.’s GM Cruise in the near term.

In premarket trading, Uber rose 4.90% to $81.74, and Lyft gained 2.42% to $12.71, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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