Waymo, an Alphabet subsidiary, and Uber have quietly terminated their robotaxi partnership in Phoenix, Arizona, a collaboration that had been active for nearly three years. The dissolution of the arrangement, which Waymo stated occurred in May, means that Waymo vehicles are no longer available on Uber's ride-hail app in Phoenix. The robotaxis involved in this pilot program have since been integrated back into Waymo's standalone Phoenix fleet, where they continue to serve riders through the Waymo app, including public transit integration with Via and delivery services with DoorDash.
Despite the Phoenix split, Waymo and Uber's partnership continues in Austin and Atlanta, where Waymo's autonomous vehicles are exclusively available through the Uber app. Phoenix held unique significance as it was the only city where Waymo operated simultaneously through both its own app and Uber's platform, and it was Waymo's first market for paid passenger rides, launched in 2020. Uber acknowledged that Phoenix was an "intentionally limited deployment" involving "just over a dozen vehicles,". They also noted that lessons from this pilot helped them to scale operations in Austin and Atlanta with "hundreds of Waymo AVs.
The end of the Phoenix partnership signals deepening tensions between the two companies, which were once courtroom rivals over trade secrets before forming a commercial alliance in 2023. Recent months have seen public spats, including Uber's CTO criticizing Waymo's robotaxi behavior on social media and Uber's CEO expressing support for regulators questioning autonomous vehicle interactions in complex urban scenarios. The two companies are also poised to directly compete in London later this year. This quiet termination has raised concerns among investors about Uber's future access to autonomous vehicle supply, with Uber stock experiencing a fractional decline of under 1% on Monday and a greater than 4% drop on June 29 following the news.
Uber's strategy for autonomous vehicles has centered on partnerships, and Waymo was a key collaborator along with others like Zoox, Avride, and Baidu's Apollo Go. Uber has committed substantial investments, including $1.25 billion in Rivian and multi-hundred-million-dollar investments in Nuro and Lucid for new robotaxi services. While Waymo explores expanding into new cities like Dallas, Houston, and Miami through its own platform, thus directly building customer relationships, Uber is preparing to launch a separate autonomous vehicle partnership in Phoenix with an unnamed partner. Needham analyst Bernie McTernan commented that while Uber was a small part of Waymo's Phoenix operations, the news would "weigh on investor's uncertain outlook for Uber's relative standing in an AV (autonomous vehicle) world."
