Uber CEO notes rideshare spared his son from needing a driver’s license, as Gen Z increasingly opts out of driving

(SeaPRwire) –   Per Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, members of Gen Z are opting out of obtaining driver’s licenses since they can simply book rideshare services instead—and his own son falls right into this group.

For Khosrowshahi, securing a driver’s license was once “a goal in life” that symbolized freedom, but his son has skipped this classic teenage milestone, he shared during an appearance on The Verge’s Decoder podcast last May. Khosrowshahi pointed out that his son is part of a growing group of teens who prefer the convenience of rideshare services over car ownership.

“This frustrates me so much,” Khosrowshahi stated. “My son is over 18… I’ve been pushing my son to get his driver’s license, but Uber has allowed him to skip that step entirely.”

Khosrowshahi noted that the ease of using rideshare services for younger generations is “definitely impacting car ownership rates.”

Data from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration backs this up: between 1983 and 2022, the share of U.S. 18-year-olds with driver’s licenses fell from 80% to 60%. Since 2000, that percentage for 16-year-olds has dropped by over 25%.

Young Americans’ lack of interest in driving isn’t just tied to modern rideshare options. A 2013 University of Michigan study that surveyed 618 adults without driver’s licenses found 37% of participants said they were too busy to obtain a license, while 32% cited the high cost of car ownership and upkeep. Roughly one-third noted they rely on rides from friends or family. Khosrowshahi also hypothesized that growing urbanization could be another factor driving Gen Z’s preference for rideshares.

“My parents pushed me hard to get a driver’s license,” a 24-year-old resident of Philadelphia told The Washington Post in 2023. “But I haven’t needed one at all so far. If there’s an emergency, I’ll just call an Uber or 911.”

Additional rideshare options for teenagers

Uber has identified an opportunity to court younger customers, having launched teen accounts three years prior that let teens under 18 take Uber rides on their own. The firm has put in place a range of safety safeguards for this feature, such as real-time trip tracking so parents can keep an eye on rides, plus the option for parents to directly message drivers mid-trip.

Other rideshare firms have followed Uber’s lead: Waymo now uses autonomous robot taxis to transport teens across Phoenix and Los Angeles, while Lyft rolled out its own teen-focused feature in February with comparable safety protocols.

“Just like every generation of teens before them, today’s teenagers crave independence,” Lyft CEO David Risher told earlier this year. “They want to be able to head out and do their own activities. And parents want a service that’s reliable, safe, and affordable—and that’s exactly what we’re working to design.”

What Will the Future of Car Ownership Look Like?

Even though Khosrowshahi is disappointed that his son skipped what he sees as a classic teenage rite of passage, Uber’s future success hinges on Gen Z continuing to avoid getting driver’s licenses. The CEO has long emphasized rideshare’s ability to challenge the cultural appeal of car ownership. Ahead of Uber’s 2019 IPO, he noted that the company would redefine car ownership the way Netflix and other streaming services transformed cable TV, reducing the need for a product that was once considered an essential purchase.

“My competitors and I are gradually unbundling what I refer to as the car package,” Khosrowshahi told CNBC back then. “These days, you don’t need a car to go out for dinner, or to drive your kids to school, and so on. Every one of these daily tasks is being replaced by an on-demand alternative.”

While the rideshare giant is betting that fewer people will buy cars, Federal Highway Administration data shows U.S. vehicle registrations rose 8% from roughly 263 million in 2015 to over 284 million in 2023. Still, S&P Global data indicates that the average age of vehicles on U.S. roads has been climbing, which suggests financial pressures are discouraging consumers from buying new cars at their previous rate.

Uber is looking to capitalize on consumers’ ongoing economic anxiety, having launched a “route share” feature last year that provides fixed-route shuttle services at lower prices for commuters. Critics have dismissed this feature as an attempt to replicate public transit, but Khosrowshahi told Decoder that Uber has no interest in competing with mass transit. Instead, he frames route-sharing as a complement to buses and trains, since some people prefer rideshares for specific situations like meeting up with a friend.

The rideshare giant remains committed to reducing the need for new cars on U.S. roads, Khosrowshahi emphasized.

“It will take a great deal of effort to reach that goal,” he noted. “Even though we’re a major corporation, we only account for less than 3% of total miles driven on U.S. roads.”

An edited version of this story was first published on .com on May 27, 2025.

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