Uber and Waymo Are Teaming Up in These Two Cities

• Waymo will offer robotaxi rides to Uber users in Austin and Atlanta starting in early 2025, with Uber set to be responsible for depot operations for Waymo cars in these two cities.

• The robotaxi developer has been mapping the two cities in the past few months, and has already partnered with Uber in Phoenix, including on food delivery via Uber Eats.

• Waymo has emerged as the robotaxi industry leader in the US since launching fuller-scale operations in San Francisco in 2023.

Back in 2023 Waymo and Uber allowed the app's users to use robotaxis in the Metro Phoenix area, pairing the ride-hailing service's app with Google's autonomous tech. Its robotaxis have also been working with Uber Eats in the same city to deliver food.

Now, the two companies will combine their skill sets to bring robotaxis to Uber riders in Austin and Atlanta starting early next year. The expansion follows months of careful mapping of the two cities by Waymo, which has emerged as the robotaxi tech front-runner in the US over the past year.

As part of this partnership, the autonomous tech developer will handle the operation and testing of the Waymo Driver, which is what the company calls its SAE Level 4 system, while Uber will be responsible for depot operations including robotaxi cleaning and repair.

It's not lost on industry observers that Uber and Waymo's plans for robotaxi service in Tesla's hometown were revealed just weeks ahead of the EV maker's supposed reveal of its own robotaxi concept, the actual capabilities and market potential of which remain quite murky.

"Waymo's mission is to be the world's most trusted driver, and we're 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," said Tekedra Mawakana, co-CEO, Waymo.

What Austin and Atlanta have in common is that both cities have been transformed in recent years by a tech boom, and have seen rapid expansion not experienced by many other cities in the US. Both also largely lack inherent geographic bottlenecks (though Austin is bisected by a river), which has hampered robotaxi expansion plans in the Bay Area while making NYC an unlikely early candidate for service expansion. Street design in the centers of both cities is also generally favorable and allows for safe curbside stops, which was not always the case in San Francisco.

Waymo first chose to prioritize (parts of) Los Angeles when expanding beyond Phoenix and San Francisco. As we've learned over the past few years, there is plenty of nuance when it comes to geographic coverage of a certain metro area by robotaxi operations, as not all parts of LA or the Bay Area are served by robotaxis.

"Today, Waymo One provides more than 100,000 trips each week across San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles," the company noted.

Waymo's recent success has also made clear that it's not enough just to have an SAE Level 4 set of sensors on a given car in a 3D-mapped city. A robotaxi service must also have a vast support base with remote human monitors, around the clock fleet management staff, a convenient base of operations, and the ability to respond quickly to safety issues in a given area.

That's something to keep in mind as Tesla gets ready to unveil its own robotaxi concept in October.

The operating costs associated with these necessary background tasks have effectively stopped a slew of competitors flooding the AV field, which is also why Waymo, backed by Google parent company Alphabet's financial resources, is just one of a handful of players in the Level 4 field.

Will robotaxis be able to set up operations in all major US cities by the end of the decade, or will their growth be much more gradual? Let us know what you think in the comments below.