According to Fortune, Grab CEO Anthony Tan announced during Tuesday’s quarterly earnings that the ride-hailing giant will launch robotaxis in Singapore in early 2026. The company reported $873 million in revenue for Q3 2025, a 22% year-over-year increase, with ride-hailing specifically growing 17% to $317 million. Grab has been making strategic investments in autonomous vehicle companies, including China’s WeRide and U.S.-based May Mobility, while running successful pilot programs. Despite the strong revenue growth, shares fell 4.7% due to minimal profit improvement – net income was just $17 million, barely up from $15 million a year earlier. Tan suggested current drivers could transition to roles like remote safety operators and data labelers as automation advances.
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The Driver Transition Reality Check
Here’s the thing about Tan’s vision for driver upskilling: it sounds great in an earnings call, but the reality is much messier. Remote safety driver? That’s basically being paid to watch a screen for hours waiting for something to go wrong. Data labeling? That’s notoriously low-paid contract work. And maintaining LiDAR and cameras requires technical skills most drivers don’t currently possess. It’s a classic corporate pivot narrative – “don’t worry about job displacement, we’ll retrain everyone!” – but the economics rarely work out that neatly. How many of Grab’s hundreds of thousands of drivers across Southeast Asia will actually make that transition successfully?
The Southeast Asia Automation Puzzle
Tan actually admitted something crucial during the analyst Q&A: robotaxis face a “steeper hill to climb” in Southeast Asia because labor costs are so much lower than in developed markets. Basically, human drivers are cheap, which makes the business case for expensive autonomous vehicles much harder to justify. In the U.S., where minimum wages are higher and driver shortages exist, robotaxis might make economic sense sooner. But in markets where you can hire a driver for a few dollars an hour? The company’s own financials show they’re making money with human drivers now – so why rush to replace them?
Grab’s AI Double-Down
What‘s really interesting is how much Grab is betting on AI across their entire operation. Over 98% of their engineers now use AI for coding? That’s an insane adoption rate that suggests they’re going all-in on automation, not just in vehicles but throughout the company. The speech recognition improvements for visually impaired users – from 46% to 90% accuracy across regional accents – shows they’re making real progress on the user experience side too. But here’s my question: if AI is becoming this central to their business, where does that leave the human element that’s been core to their service?
The Profit vs Growth Dilemma
Look at the numbers: $873 million revenue but only $17 million profit? That’s a razor-thin margin that explains why investors weren’t thrilled despite the growth story. The stock dropped nearly 5% because Wall Street wants to see profits scaling with revenue, not just top-line growth. Now they’re hiking their 2025 profit forecast to $480-500 million, which suggests they’re confident about turning these investments into real money. But robotaxis are expensive – both the technology and the regulatory hurdles. Can they really make this work while keeping shareholders happy and drivers employed? That’s the billion-dollar question Grab needs to answer.
