Robotaxi Alliance Relations Deteriorate! Google's (GOOGL.US) Waymo Plans to "Break Up" with Uber (UBER.US)

According to Zhitong Finance APP, Waymo, the autonomous taxi company under Google (GOOGL.US), is considering ending its partnership with Uber (UBER.US) due to worsening relations between the two companies. Sources cited in the report say that the two sides have had disagreements regarding operational and business matters. As a result of this news, Uber's stock closed down 4.3% on Friday.

The report said that after the partnership was first announced in 2023, Waymo had internally discussed terminating its collaboration with Uber. It is reported that operational and business conflicts between the two have intensified in recent years. Waymo expressed concerns about the cleanliness of its vehicles and route planning on the Uber platform. Meanwhile, Uber criticized Waymo vehicles for suddenly becoming unavailable in bad weather conditions and believes that the partnership has “unsustainable financial terms.”

A person familiar with the matter told the media that the two companies are “pursuing different goals.” According to reports, Waymo has informed Uber that it plans to independently enter the relevant market after the contract allows in January 2028.

Notably, at the end of June, Waymo and Uber had already ended their autonomous driving services collaboration in Phoenix, Arizona. Phoenix was the first market where Waymo began providing paid Robotaxi services to passengers via its own ride-hailing app in 2020. In 2023, Waymo and Uber signed a multi-year cooperation agreement, and later that year began offering some Waymo Robotaxi fleet services through the Uber app. Under their arrangement, Waymo vehicles were used not only for Robotaxi passenger services but also for on-demand food delivery.

At the time, an Uber spokesperson said the Phoenix project “was always an intentionally limited pilot deployment, with just over a dozen vehicles dedicated to the project.” The company stated it will announce a new project in Phoenix in cooperation with another autonomous vehicle supplier in the future, but did not provide further details.

According to Waymo, after completing hundreds of thousands of trips, the Phoenix Robotaxi partnership ended in May. The food delivery partnership will end in May 2025. Waymo stated that these vehicles will be reintegrated into its fleet to support its delivery agreement with Uber competitor DoorDash (DASH.US), as well as a public transit cooperation project with Via Transportation (VIA.US) launched last year. Phoenix users can still hail rides via the Waymo app. Speaking about the Phoenix collaboration with Uber, a Waymo spokesperson said: “It was a productive pilot that paved the way for broader expansion and collaboration globally.”

Since the companies expanded their collaboration to Austin and Atlanta in 2025, the fleet size and operational scope in those markets has continued to grow, but no announcements have been made about expanding their partnership to more cities. Meanwhile, Waymo has expanded into Nashville, Miami, and other cities in Texas and is operating in these markets with other fleet management partners, competing with Uber for riders.

This situation has heightened concerns among some analysts and industry observers. They worry that if Robotaxis become widely adopted and Waymo, Tesla (TSLA.US), and other operators choose not to make their vehicles available on Uber's platform, Uber's future prospects could be affected.

To counter these market concerns, Uber has reached a series of new partnership agreements. Uber is betting that autonomous driving technology will eventually become a standardized commodity and is positioning itself as a commercial Robotaxi platform. Currently, the company has entered into partnerships with more than a dozen autonomous driving firms, including Lucid Group (LCID.US), Nuro, Zoox (an Amazon subsidiary), Avride, Baidu, and WeRide.

However, Uber executives said that most of these partnerships will still require at least several years to officially launch or reach large-scale expansion. In contrast, Waymo already operates more than 3,000 autonomous vehicles in over 10 cities across the U.S.