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MACHINE AGE CARTOON

THE EMPTY EXPRESS LANE

By Zimbo · November 5, 2026

AI cartoon by Zimbo: Satirical cartoon: a grand red-carpeted AI AGENT lane sits almost empty with a small robot attendant waving at a few tiny cars, while the packed UBER APP lane beside it streams with crowds and traffic, on plain white paper.
AI agents booked just 4 Uber rides out of 320 million. The future got its own lane — and nobody took it.Zimbo for AI News Page

The story behind the cartoon

On Uber's third-quarter earnings call on November 4, the company said only four rides were ordered through an AI agent during Halloween week, its busiest week in October, against around 320 million trips and orders that week. Agents placed roughly 500 Uber Eats orders.

CEO Dara Khosrowshahi called traction 'very, very early and very limited,' noting booking a ride in Uber's own app takes about 50 seconds — so an agent saves the customer almost no time. DoorDash reported the same pattern the previous week.

The agentic-commerce hype meets the arithmetic: four rides in 320 million is not a slow start, it is a rounding error — the agent lane is open, grand, and empty.

The joke is the near-zero-adoption beat: a grand, immaculate, red-carpeted curbside lane marked AI AGENT sits almost completely abandoned, a small robot attendant waving toward a few tiny waiting cars, while the packed UBER APP lane beside it streams with crowds and traffic.

READ THE FULL REPORT — TechCrunch ↗

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