Passengers ride in an electric Jaguar I-PACE car equipped with Waymo fully self-driving technology in Santa Monica, California, on February 21, 2023.
Allen J. Schaben | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Ubers ride-hailing and delivery services will soon be offered by Waymo’s autonomous vehicles, at least in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area.
On Tuesday, Waymo, a division of Alphabetannounced a multi-year partnership with Uber, offering autonomous ride-hailing service and delivery through Uber Eats that will begin later this year in a 180-square-mile operating area around Phoenix, which Waymo bills as “the largest fully autonomous service area in the world.”
The news comes nearly two months after Waymo announced it would make its Waymo One fleet all-electric and expanded vehicle testing in Austin, Texas.
“Fully autonomous driving is quickly becoming part of everyday life, and we’re excited to bring Waymo’s incredible technology to the Uber platform,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement.
“Uber has long been a leader in human-driven ridesharing, and connecting our cutting-edge technology and all-electric fleet with their customer network gives Waymo an opportunity to reach even more people,” Tekedra Mawakana, co-CEO of Waymo, said.
A representative for Waymo declined to comment on the terms of the financial partnership.
Previously, the two companies were rivals in the robot taxi space and settled a trade secrets case in 2018 for 245 million dollars after Waymo accused Uber of poaching one of its top engineers. Uber also agreed not to use Waymo’s proprietary information in its operations. In 2020, Uber sold its autonomous car unit to Aurora for a reported $4 billion, in an effort to prioritize profitability and focus on safer ventures amid the Covid-19 pandemic, such as ride-hailing and food delivery.
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