Waymo is reportedly looking for a way out of its ride-hail deal with Uber

[Shannon91]

Waymo is reportedly exploring an exit from its partnership with Uber, which currently makes Waymo's robotaxis available through Uber's app in Austin and Atlanta, according to the Financial Times. Uber confirmed to TechCrunch that Waymo has told it the company intends to offer robotaxis on its own app in those same markets starting in January 2028, running alongside the existing Uber integration, while Uber says the underlying contract covering both cities runs through May 2028

This follows the two companies already quietly parting ways in Phoenix earlier this year, and comes after months of visibly rising tension between the two companies. Uber's CTO posted a video earlier this year describing what he called unsafe and scary behavior from a Waymo robotaxi, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi lightly criticized Waymo's robotaxi behavior in school zones and emergency situations during an earnings call without naming the company directly

The two companies have also ended up on opposite sides of several fresh policy fights over robotaxi regulation, with Uber's broader robotaxi lobbying strategy reportedly putting it on a collision course with Waymo's own positioning. Waymo did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reported plans

Waymo reportedly mulling a breakup with Uber | TechCrunchtechcrunch.com

[Shane_77]

Phoenix already splitting earlier this year made this next step feel pretty inevitable once the tension became this public

[Ava_75]

Waymo wanting full control of its own app experience makes sense strategically once it has enough scale in a given city to not need Uber's existing user base anymore

[ProperJobs89]

The dueling public comments about safety, Uber's CTO calling it scary and Khosrowshahi's veiled criticism, clearly set the stage for this breakup even before it was reported

[Abbie92]

Running its own app alongside Uber starting January 2028 rather than an immediate hard cutover seems like a fairly measured transition plan

[Dave96]

Curious how pricing and availability actually compare once Waymo is running its own booking experience directly instead of going through Uber's marketplace

[Kieron78]

The policy fights angle is probably the real long term story here, whoever wins the regulatory battles shapes the entire robotaxi market far more than any single city partnership does

[HeartbreakKidCurtis18]

This is exactly the kind of partnership that always looked temporary once Waymo had enough scale to not need a middleman anymore