Daily Tech Snippet: Monday, April 17

• Uber's revenue hits $6.5 billion in 2016, still has large loss: Ride-hailing service Uber Technologies  generated $6.5 billion in revenue last year and its gross bookings doubled to $20 billion, the company said on Friday. Its adjusted net loss was $2.8 billion, excluding the operation in China it sold last year, Uber said. As a private company, now worth $68 billion, Uber does not report its financial results publicly. It confirmed the figures in an emailed statement after Bloomberg reported the results. For the final quarter of 2016, gross bookings increased 28 percent from the previous quarter, to $6.9 billion. But Uber's losses grew to $991 million in the period, as revenues grew 74 percent to $2.9 billion from the third quarter.

• Apple is finally going to test self-driving cars: After months of speculation that the company is developing automotive technology, Apple has officially leapt into the war for self-driving cars by obtaining a test permit from California regulators. The permit allows Apple to begin testing up to three 2015 Lexus SUVs similar to the type that Google uses for its autonomous cars. By obtaining clearance from California's Department of Motor Vehicles, Apple is signaling that it is serious about pushing forward with self-driving technology despite reports last fall that it was scaling back its ambitions. California's DMV disclosed the permit on its website Friday, which lists several dozen other companies that are testing self-driving technology. The group includes BMW, Ford, Honda, Nissan, Uber and others. Like those other companies, Apple's test vehicles will have human drivers behind the wheel when they go out on public roads, according to California regulations.

• Uber Wants to Rule the World. First It Must Conquer India.  After last year’s bruising retreat from China, where the company was outgunned by local incumbent Didi Chuxing, Uber is diving fully into this nation of 1.3 billion people, pouring money, engineers and logistical expertise into dominating what could one day be the world’s largest market for transportation services. Back at Uber’s headquarters in San Francisco in January, Mr. Kalanick, sitting at the head of a small conference table, offered a proud assessment of his company’s role in India. Sipping an iced tea, he said he planned to spend 20 days year in the country, more than in any other market outside of the United States. (He made headlines on a recent trip for offering to become an Indian citizen if it would help Uber’s prospects there.) When I asked if India was Uber’s second-biggest market, he rolled his eyes to the ceiling, as if accessing a spreadsheet stored behind his eyelids. “Hold, let me check, let me think,” he said, and then made a “boop boop boop” sound as the numbers came to him. “We’ll say India’s No. 2,” he declared. At other times during the 40-minute conversation, Mr. Kalanick seemed to grow agitated at questions about some of the difficulties of working in the Indian market. Indian cities do not present any problems that Uber couldn’t overcome, he said, or that it hadn’t seen anywhere else in the world. What about the traffic, the low ownership of cars, the local competitor? “I’m losing your angle,” Mr. Kalanick responded. “I feel like I’m getting asked the same question over and over again. I don’t get it.” Then he excused himself to get a second iced tea. A few minutes later, he returned and I asked again if he was sure Uber would be profitable in India. “Yeah,” he said. He didn’t elaborate, so I prodded him on how he might know that to be true. “I mean, I know all the data,” he said.