Over the past 10 years, Uber’s annual Lost & Found index has provided a rather quirky anthropological picture of its riders — and even some insights into society. The annual list of millions of forgotten items ranges from mundane modern gadgets like smartphones and laptops to eyebrow-raising items like live fish, an ankle monitor, a sled, a pack of live butterflies and a single Louboutin shoe.
This year, Uber is using the report to highlight the same old problem of lost items with a new twist: robotaxis. Thousands of items (it’s pretty much new for millions) have been left behind by robotaxi on Uber’s network in the past year, the company said Tuesday. There were the usual suspects of phones, keys, wallets, passports, and earphones, along with a few items that veered into the “Who-is-this-Rider” category: a set of dentures, an “I Heart Hot Dads” bag, and a blue hat that says “Emotional Support Human.”
Beyond this fun list lies a business opportunity, if a small one. Even in a robot taxi future, someone has to return the things passengers leave behind.
Uber has spent the past several years striking dozens of partnerships with autonomous vehicle (AV) technology companies. But it wasn’t really until March 2025, when the robotaxi service ‘Waymo on Uber’ launched in Austin, that the commercial wheels of its AV business started turning. Since then, Uber and Waymo have also launched a robotaxi service in Atlanta. Uber has added other AV companies to its app over the past year, including Motional in Las Vegas and Avride in Dallas, though those still have human safety operators behind the wheel.
The fact that Uber has already logged thousands of lost items in just 12 months gives some sense of how many robotaxi rides have been completed on its app. The underlying message here is that Uber’s existing network is already set up to reunite riders with their lost items, including a 15kg yo-yo, a large black marble duck, a Squishmallow and a Charli XCX poster.
When an Uber rider forgets their belongings in a robotaxi, the process for retrieving them is similar to any other Uber ride: open the app, click on the activity tab, select the trip where the item was lost, and contact customer support. Riders can then text, chat or call a support agent. If the item is located, they have two options: pay $15 for an Uber Courier driver to provide local same-day delivery, or pick up the items in person at an AV warehouse, where the vehicles are stored and serviced.
Uber Courier is a rebrand of Uber Connect, which launched in 2020 and allowed users to send packages and personal items between local addresses. But Uber says there’s more to the robotaxi support network than reimagining existing services.
“With tens of millions of lost items reported to Uber each year, we’ve spent the last decade building systems that help riders quickly and seamlessly reunite with their belongings,” said Amy Satrom, Uber’s global head of autonomous support. “As autonomous rides continue to scale at Uber, we’re bringing the same expertise to AVs — combining our fleet operations, support teams and hybrid network to make returning a lost item simple, even when there’s no driver behind the wheel.”
In February, the company announced Uber Autonomous Solutions, a new business division that carries its larger ambitions around driverless technology. The division provides companies with a suite of services that handle all tasks associated with running a robot, self-driving or curbside delivery robot business, including software and support services.
And Uber clearly means to make AVs a major revenue driver. The company plans to offer robotaxi rides through its app in up to 15 cities worldwide by the end of the year, and has said it aims to be the world’s largest facilitator of AV travel by 2029.
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