Uber and Waymo extend partnership to two more US cities

Ride-hailing heavyweight Uber and autonomous driving (AD) firm Waymo will extend their existing partnership to make Waymo self-driving cars available to customers in Atlanta, GA and Austin, TX from early 2025.

In these cities, Uber will manage and dispatch a fleet of Waymo’s fully autonomous Jaguar I-Pace BEVs vehicles. Uber customers can then be matched with a Waymo for qualifying trips.

“We are thrilled to build on our successful partnership with Waymo, which has already powered fully autonomous trips for tens of thousands of riders in Phoenix,” says Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

“Waymo’s mission is to be the world’s most trusted driver, and we are excited to launch this expanded network and operations partnership with Uber in Austin and Atlanta to bring the benefits of fully autonomous driving to more riders,” says Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana. “We have been delighted at the positive feedback from our Waymo One riders to date, and we cannot wait to bring the comfort, convenience, and safety of the Waymo Driver to these cities in partnership with Uber.”

Uber will provide fleet management services including vehicle cleaning, repair, and other general depot operations. Waymo will continue to be responsible for the testing and operation of the self-driving cars, including roadside assistance and certain rider support functions.

Traditional OEMs remain keen to move into the AD space, including western firms like BMW and Renault and Chinese challengers like Xpeng. Some, such as GM and Honda and, most notably, Tesla are even targeting the robotaxi sector beyond private cars.

But there remains a feeling that carmakers remain well behind AD specialists such as Waymo, the troubled GM subsidiary Cruise and China's Baidu. And there is also scepticism from analysts and those pursuing mass-transit AD over the size of the overall robotaxi opportunity and its revenue potential.