Waymo robotaxis is no longer available on Uber’s ride-hail app in Phoenix, Arizona, ending a nearly three-year partnership in the city, both companies confirmed to TechCrunch on Monday.
Uber said it was preparing to launch a separate autonomous vehicle partnership in the city, but did not name the partner. Waymo told TechCrunch that the vehicles Uber used for this “pilot” program are already integrated into its own Phoenix fleet, available through its app.
Waymo users began to notice that the company vehicles were absent from the Uber network in recent days. Waymo vehicles are still available to Uber in Austin and Atlanta, for example. Uber told TechCrunch that the two companies decided to end development in Phoenix as the contract expired.
The quiet end of that partnership in Phoenix, which Waymo said happened in May, comes as the Alphabet-owned company begins to put its newest robotaxis on the road — the Zeekr truck it calls Ojai. It also comes as the Uber-Waymo relationship appears to be emerging in some quarters, with the two companies poised to directly compete with each other in London as early as this year.
However, both companies hailed the partnership in Phoenix as a successful starting point for their respective robotaxi plans, which have become increasingly ambitious since 2023.
“This was a productive pilot that paved the way for future expansions and partnerships around the world. After hundreds of thousands of trips with Uber, we integrated these vehicles back into our fleet in Phoenix, where they will continue to serve riders through Waymo, including public transit integration with Via and delivery with DoorDashmo,” WayCrunch. “We are grateful to all Uber customers who have taken fully autonomous journeys with us and look forward to continuing to serve the Phoenix community.”
“Phoenix was our first pilot market with Waymo, and it was an intentionally limited rollout, reaching just over a dozen vehicles dedicated to the program. We learned a lot from this partnership, which helped us quickly scale Austin and Atlanta, where hundreds of Waymo AVs are available exclusively to Uber and our The coverage area continues to expandUber said.
The robotaxi landscape looks very different than it did when these two companies started this partnership in 2023. When it was first announced, the idea of Uber and Waymo working together still seemed unlikely given their messy legal battle that ended in a settlement in 2018. Robotaxis as a technology was at a much more uncertain scale, as no operator had yet arrived. Cruise was still considered a viable competitor as it had not yet moved past its own scandal and been absorbed by General Motors.
In the three years since, Waymo has grown its fleet to about 4,000 vehicles, and Uber has signed deals to add dozens of autonomous vehicle partners to its network.
This Phoenix partnership remained unusual as it was the only city where Waymo operated directly and through Uber. Waymo is in the process of launching in about 20 new cities this year, operates in 11 major US metro areas, and the company offers more than 500,000 trips each week.
This story has been updated with information from Uber that this is the end date of the contract.
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