Uber and Waymo had been in a brother-sister, sister-sister, or brother-brother relationship until recently.
Avid followers of ridesharing news could recall that these partnerships were even strengthened some time in 2024, when these initiatives were launched in Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia.
“Waymo and Uber expand partnership to bring autonomous ride-hailing to Austin and Atlanta,” stated an official press release of Waymo back then. Get ready, Austin and Atlanta! Today, Waymo and Uber are announcing an expanded partnership to bring the Waymo One experience to Austin and Atlanta, only on the Uber app, beginning in early 2025. In these cities, Uber will manage and dispatch a fleet of Waymo’s fully autonomous, all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles, which will grow to hundreds of vehicles over time.”
However, this good relationship is shifting, and is probably coming to an end, since you’ve heard about Uber bidding farewell to its Waymo operations in Phoenix, Arizona. RSF reported this matter recently.
After losing its markets in Los Angeles, California, and Miami, Florida, Phoenix has taken part in the bandwagon after it has, once and for all, ended its self-driving operations in this big city in Arizona.
A Waymo spokesperson said that vehicles used for the pilot program have already been integrated back into its own Phoenix fleet, where they remain available through its app.
“Phoenix was our first pilot market with Waymo and was an intentionally limited deployment, reaching just over a dozen vehicles dedicated to the program,” an Uber representative stated meanwhile.
In another sudden turn of events, ridesharing media exposed the fact that Uber may actually be in a real, real clash with its former friend, now its “enemy,” Waymo, over robotaxi deals.
According to a Sunday report on technology website Techcrunch, “Regulatory pressure and public clashes between Uber and Waymo are accelerating a shakeup in robotaxi markets, putting major contracts and safety rules on the line.”
What does this mean? It could mean that with the partnerships between Uber and Waymo on self-driving cars ending, tensions are also rising in-between. Well, things are worse, since the executives of the two companies are lambasting each other in public. Politics are also involved as more direct actions to access regulated markets where robotaxi operators aim to enter brand-new platforms are expected. Yikes!
Speaking of politics, the government, through National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Administrator Jonathan Morrison, told the RSF team, “Let me be clear: the inability to detect and properly respond to such situations is a functional deficiency. Emergency scenes are neither rare nor extreme. Therefore, today the NHTSA is issuing a call to action for AV developers and operators to immediately focus their resources on fixing this problem.”
As much as the team would like to shut down the flames, they are actually being fanned, as shortly after the strengthening of the partnership last year, in January 2026, Uber drivers started protesting the presence of Waymo robotaxis in San Francisco, RSF also previously reported. Well, at the very least, it’s not Uber, but its drivers, that is protesting, but this is a significant precedent.
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