Waymo Confirms It Will Leave Uber in Austin and Atlanta From January 2028

Austin and Atlanta are the only US cities where Uber offers Waymo's driverless rides, and at the moment riders there can book the vehicles only through Uber. Running its own app would give Waymo a direct relationship with customers in the two cities, as it already has everywhere else it operates. Uber loses exclusive access to the best-known robotaxi operator in the US in both markets, which matters because its autonomous-vehicle strategy rests on hosting other companies' fleets on its network.

Mawakana told Bloomberg that Waymo first teamed up with Uber because the ride-hailing company offered scale. She said the rider experience had been "a little bit of a crapshoot", because people booking through Uber could not be sure whether a robotaxi or a human driver would arrive. "It's important for us to have that relationship with the rider. We've gotten that feedback from the riders in those markets," she said.

Uber told TechCrunch on Wednesday that it still plans to keep Waymo vehicles on its app for as long as the two companies agree to it. Uber also told Bloomberg that the decision not to give riders an option in the Uber app to request a robotaxi specifically was Waymo's. Waymo did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's request for comment.

The Financial Times reported in July that Waymo was looking for a way out of the deal. At the time, according to Bloomberg's July report, an Uber spokesperson said Waymo had given notice that it would launch its own app in the two cities in January 2028 "alongside their existing deployment with Uber". The spokesperson said this "would end Waymo's exclusivity in Austin and Atlanta" and leave Uber free to bring in other autonomous-vehicle providers there. Uber said Waymo's existing fleet would stay on its platform until at least May 2028, when the current contract ends. Uber shares fell as much as 4.9 per cent on the day those reports appeared.

The companies announced the Austin and Atlanta partnership in September 2024. Waymo has not added any Uber cities since then. It has instead launched in other markets through its standalone app, and it competes with Uber directly in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The two companies have already split in Phoenix, where Uber wound down its Waymo service earlier this year.

Mawakana's interview leaves one practical question open. For roughly five months, from January to May 2028, Waymo vehicles could be available on both apps in Austin and Atlanta. Neither company has said how rides will be divided between the two during that overlap, or whether Waymo vehicles will stay on Uber after the contract expires.