Uber and Waymo have announced a new partnership that will allow Waymo’s robotaxis to be hailed for rides and food delivery on Uber’s app in Phoenix later this year. A set number of Waymo vehicles will be available to Uber riders and Uber Eats delivery customers in Phoenix, where Waymo recently doubled its service area to 180 square miles. The partnership aims to bring together Waymo’s autonomous driving technology with the massive scale of Uber’s ridesharing and delivery networks. The number of vehicles that will be available through Uber’s app has not been disclosed, but they will not be exclusive to Uber. Robotaxi services have struggled in the years since the pandemic, with companies laying off workers and some firms shutting down completely. Uber and Waymo have a preexisting partnership involving autonomous long-haul trucking, which is still ongoing. Waymo also had a partnership with Lyft to deploy its robotaxis on the smaller ridehail company’s app, but that ended in 2020 during the pandemic. Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, has its vehicles available to hail on Uber’s app in Las Vegas. Uber was developing its own fleet of autonomous vehicles with the intention to eventually replace all of its human drivers, but the program was shut down after a woman was killed by one of the company’s vehicles in 2017.
