Uber and Waymo terminate Phoenix robotaxi pilot on Uber app

Uber has quietly shut down its Waymo robotaxi service in Phoenix, Arizona, ending a limited pilot program that began in 2023. The move follows hundreds of thousands of autonomous rides completed under the partnership, which also included on-demand food deliveries using Waymo vehicles. The ride-hailing portion of the program wrapped up last month, while food deliveries concluded in May 2025. Waymo confirmed the vehicles will now be redeployed for other partnerships, including a delivery deal with DoorDash and a public transit agreement with Via Transportation that launched last year. Phoenix was the first market where Waymo offered paid passenger rides on its own app in 2020, and the partnership with Uber expanded its reach by integrating a subset of its robotaxi fleet into the Uber app starting in 2023. The program was intentionally limited, with just over a dozen vehicles dedicated to the effort, according to Uber. The company has hinted at a future autonomous vehicle program in Phoenix with a different provider but provided no further details. The end of the pilot reflects broader tensions in the Uber-Waymo relationship, which Wall Street is watching closely as a barometer for Uber’s ambitions to dominate the robotaxi aggregation space. While the companies have expanded their collaboration to Austin and Atlanta in 2025, no new cities have been announced. Meanwhile, Waymo has aggressively expanded into markets like Nashville, Miami, and additional Texas cities, often competing directly with Uber for passengers. This has fueled concerns among analysts about Uber’s long-term viability if major autonomous vehicle operators bypass its platform. Uber’s stock has slumped more than 18% over the past year, underperforming the S&P 500’s 20% gain. To counter this narrative, Uber has rapidly inked deals with over a dozen autonomous vehicle providers, including Lucid Group, Nuro Inc., Amazon’s Zoox, Avride Inc., Baidu Inc., and WeRide Inc. However, Uber executives have cautioned that most of these partnerships won’t scale meaningfully for several more years. For now, Phoenix riders can still hail a Waymo robotaxi—but only through the Waymo app, not Uber.