Uber and Waymo Expand Partnership to Bring Autonomous Ride-Hailing to Austin and Atlanta

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09/13/2024 - 09:00 AM

SAN FRANCISCO & MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Today, Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: UBER) and Waymo LLC announced an expansion of their existing partnership to make the Waymo Driver available to more people via Uber.

Uber and Waymo Expand Partnership to Bring Autonomous Ride-Hailing to Austin and Atlanta (Graphic: Business Wire)

Beginning in early 2025, Waymo and Uber will bring autonomous ride-hailing to Austin and Atlanta, only on the Uber app. In these cities, Uber will manage and dispatch a fleet of Waymo’s fully autonomous, all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles that will grow to hundreds over time. Riders who request an UberX, Uber Green, Uber Comfort, or Uber Comfort Electric may be matched with a Waymo for qualifying trips.

“We’re thrilled to build on our successful partnership with Waymo, which has already powered fully autonomous trips for tens of thousands of riders in Phoenix,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber. “Soon, riders in Austin and Atlanta will be able to experience that same mobility magic, through a new fleet of dedicated autonomous Waymo vehicles, available only on Uber.”

“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. “We’ve been delighted at the positive feedback from our Waymo One riders to date, and we can’t wait to bring the comfort, convenience, and safety of the Waymo Driver to these cities in partnership with Uber.”

Through this expanded partnership, Uber will provide fleet management services including vehicle cleaning, repair, and other general depot operations. Waymo will continue to be responsible for the testing and operation of the Waymo Driver, including roadside assistance and certain rider support functions.

About Waymo

Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company with the mission to be the world’s most trusted driver. Since our start as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009, Waymo has focused on building the Waymo Driver—The World's Most Experienced Driver™—to improve everyone's access to mobility while saving 40,000 of lives now lost to traffic crashes in the U.S. annually. The Waymo Driver powers Waymo One, a fully autonomous ride-hailing service providing over 100K trips each week across San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. In total, Waymo has served over two million rider-only trips, enabled by its experience autonomously driving tens of millions of miles on public roads across 13+ U.S. states and tens of billions of miles in simulation.

About Uber

Uber’s mission is to create opportunity through movement. We started in 2010 to solve a simple problem: how do you get access to a ride at the touch of a button? More than 52 billion trips later, we're building products to get people closer to where they want to be. By changing how people, food, and things move through cities, Uber is a platform that opens up the world to new possibilities.