Waymo, Uber end robotaxi partnership in the Valley

Uber is no longer offering Valley customers an option to book Waymo’s robotaxis through its ride hailing app after ending a three-year pilot program intended to help both companies scale autonomous vehicle operations.

Uber and Waymo on Monday confirmed to the Business Journal they ended their robotaxi partnership in May. The two companies initially announced the partnership in 2023 that made available a select number of Waymo’s Jaguar I-PACE electric cars across the Valley for ride-hailing and food delivery on the Uber and Uber Eats apps.

TechCrunch first reported the partnership dissolution after Uber users in the Valley began noticing Waymo’s robotaxis were absent from the company’s app, while they were still available in Austin and Atlanta.

“Phoenix was our first pilot market with Waymo and was an intentionally limited deployment, reaching just over a dozen vehicles dedicated to the program,” an Uber spokesperson told the Business Journal. “We learned a lot from that collaboration, which helped us to quickly scale Austin and Atlanta, where hundreds of Waymo AVs are available exclusively on Uber and our coverage area continues to expand.”

This story is posted in partnership with Phoenix Business Journal. Click to read the full story.

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