According to Fortune, Grab CEO Anthony Tan announced the company will launch robotaxis in Singapore in early 2026 following successful autonomous vehicle pilots. The ride-hailing giant reported $873 million in Q3 revenue, up 22% year-over-year, with ride-hailing revenue hitting $317 million and deliveries reaching $465 million. Grab also invested in Chinese robotaxi operator WeRide and U.S.-based May Mobility as part of its “long-term strategy to lead AV adoption across Southeast Asia.” Despite the growth, shares fell 4.7% as net income only slightly improved to $17 million from $15 million a year earlier. Tan suggested current drivers could transition to “new kinds of jobs” like remote safety drivers and data labelers as autonomous technology expands.
Driver transition reality check
Here’s the thing about that “upskilling” narrative – it sounds great in earnings calls, but the math doesn’t quite add up. Tan himself admitted robotaxis face a “steeper hill to climb” in Southeast Asia because labor costs are already low. Basically, when you can hire human drivers cheaply, the economic case for expensive autonomous technology gets shaky. And let’s be honest – how many of those “remote safety driver” positions will actually exist compared to the hundreds of thousands of drivers currently on Grab’s platform? It feels like we’ve heard this “they’ll just learn to code” argument before in other industries.
Financial mixed signals
Grab’s quarterly results show a company that’s growing revenue impressively but struggling with profitability. They raised their full-year EBITDA forecast to $480-500 million, which sounds solid until you notice that net income barely budged. The market reaction – that 4.7% drop – suggests investors aren’t convinced the robotaxi investments will pay off anytime soon. I mean, Tan basically admitted it’ll take “considerable time for the unit economics to reach parity with human drivers.” So we’re looking at what could be years of heavy investment before this becomes financially viable.
AI everywhere except where it counts
What’s interesting is how Grab is already deeply integrating AI across its operations. Over 98% of engineers using AI to code? Speech recognition accuracy jumping from 46% to 90%? Those are genuinely impressive numbers. But here’s the disconnect – they’re talking about AI improving internal efficiencies while simultaneously planning to replace their core service providers with completely different technology. It’s like they’re building two parallel companies: one that’s optimizing the current human-driven model and another that’s preparing to make that model obsolete.
Southeast Asia autonomous challenge
The real test won’t be in Singapore, where roads are orderly and regulations are clear. The challenge comes when they try to expand this across Southeast Asia. Think about the chaotic traffic patterns in Jakarta or Manila – does anyone really believe autonomous vehicles can handle that anytime soon? And then there’s the regulatory landscape across multiple countries, each with their own rules and infrastructure challenges. Tan’s vision of “leading AV adoption across Southeast Asia” sounds ambitious, but the timeline for meaningful expansion beyond Singapore is probably measured in decades, not years.
