Uber and Waymo End Robotaxi Deal in Phoenix; Uber to Announce New Partner
Uber Technologies Inc. said it has wound down its robotaxi offering with Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo in Phoenix, the latest relationship twist between two companies that simultaneously function as partners and competitors.
The Arizona capital was the first market where Waymo offered paid passenger rides on its own ride-hailing app in 2020. In 2023, it signed a multiyear deal with the ridesharing giant and began offering a subset of its robotaxi fleet on the Uber app later that year. Under the arrangement, the two companies used Waymo vehicles for both robotaxi trips and on-demand food deliveries.
Phoenix “was an intentionally limited deployment, reaching just over a dozen vehicles dedicated to the program,” an Uber spokesperson said in response to a Bloomberg News inquiry. The company will announce a new program with another autonomous vehicle provider in Phoenix in the future but did not share additional details.
Related: Uber to Offer Robotaxis in Houston With Lucid and Nuro, Posing Challenge to Waymo
The ride-hailing part of the Phoenix partnership ended last month after the companies completed hundreds of thousands of trips, according to Waymo. The food deliveries portion ended in May 2025.
Waymo said the vehicles will be integrated back into its fleet to serve a delivery agreement with Uber rival DoorDash Inc. and a public transit deal with Via Transportation Inc. that began last year. Riders in Phoenix can still hail a Waymo on the Waymo app.
“This was a productive pilot that paved the way for future expansions and partnerships across the globe,” a Waymo spokesperson said of the Uber program in Phoenix.
The conclusion of the program marks the latest development in the Uber-Waymo partnership, which is being closely watched by Wall Street as a key measure of success for Uber’s ambitions to become a major robotaxi aggregator.
Since their partnership expanded to Austin and Atlanta in 2025, the companies have not announced additional cities where they will work together, even as they continue to add to the fleets and operating area in those two markets. Waymo, meanwhile, has expanded to Nashville, Miami and other cities in Texas, where it works with alternative fleet managers and finds itself competing with Uber for passengers.
Related: Uber, Lyft Drivers in Massachusetts Form First US Ride-Share Union
That has stoked anxiety among some analysts and industry observers, who have been concerned about Uber’s future if robotaxis proliferate, and if operators like Waymo and Tesla Inc. decide not to make their vehicles available on the Uber app. Uber shares have declined more than 18% in the past 12 months, notably trailing the 20% gains that the S&P 500 Index has seen.
Uber has been striking deals in rapid succession to counter that narrative. Betting that one day driverless technology will become a commodity, Uber has positioned itself as the commercialization platform for such rides, and has made agreements with more than a dozen autonomous vehicle providers like Lucid Group Inc., Nuro Inc., Amazon.com Inc.’s Zoox, Avride Inc., Baidu Inc. and WeRide Inc.
But Uber executives have said most of these partnerships won’t start or expand at scale for at least a few more years. In contrast, Waymo operates more than 3,000 vehicles across more than 10 U.S. cities.
Top photo: A Waymo autonomous taxi. Bloomberg.