Waymo and Uber’s Partnership May be Cooling
Tesla launches ‘robotaxi’ rides in the Bay Area with massive geofence, Union backed Boston ordinance could halt AV rollout, and two Waymos crash into each other.
Hey, it’s Harry! Welcome to the 143 new subscribers who have signed up since our last newsletter. I’m excited to have you join the 2,240 AV enthusiasts, executives, and industry professionals who are already on board.
Top Stories of the Week
Waymo, Avis Plan Dallas Robotaxi Launch in Multiyear Deal (link, no paywall). Under the agreement, Avis will serve as a fleet partner, providing end-to-end fleet management — handling infrastructure, vehicle readiness, maintenance, and depot operations — while riders will book trips directly through the Waymo app.
Nice to see a new name like Avis enter the AV space but the big surprise for me was the omission of Uber. Uber is Waymo’s exclusive partner in Austin and Atlanta but since they don’t own a single vehicle or have any experience in fleet management, they outsource those responsibilities to their partner Avomo in those two cities. In Phoenix and soon to be Miami, Uber-backed Moove provides fleet operations for Waymo.
Avis on the other hand, according to CEO Brian J. Choi, has a ton of experience and on the ground operations:
In the City of Dallas alone, we manage a fleet of over 15,000 vehicles spread across 50-plus sites maintained by dozens of technicians and service by a field team of over 500 individuals. We’ve been doing this day in and day out for over 75 years.
Waymo doesn’t partner with Uber for their expertise in fleet management though; instead they look to Uber to generate massive demand. And according to all indications, the Austin launch had been going well with Waymo providing 20% of all Uber rides on the platform just 1 month into the partnership with only 100 vehicles.
So why did Waymo ditch Uber for the Dallas launch? For some, the concerns about the Uber-Waymo relationship started when Waymo announced Miami and then DC without Uber. But that was before we had early positive data from Uber.
Here’s what the timeline looks like:
9/13/24 - Waymo on Uber announced for Atlanta and Austin.
12/5/24 - Waymo announced Miami market with fleet partner Moove but no mention of Uber.
3/4/25 - Waymo launched in Austin - exclusively on Uber.
3/25/25 - Waymo announced Washington DC as the next ‘Waymo One’ market - rides to begin in 2026. No Uber or fleet partners in the announcement.
4/9/25 - We started getting positive data back from Waymo x Uber Austin launch (just one month after the launch).
5/7/25 - Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, says Waymos in Austin are busier than 99% of human drivers
7/28/25 - Waymo announces Dallas launch with Avis as their fleet partner, and no Uber.
Uber still has a strong partnership with Waymo in Austin and Atlanta, and numerous other AV partners, but that may also be the problem. Uber benefits from a fragmented AV market and is investing and partnering with over a dozen other players while Waymo has shown that they don't need Uber to be successful.
Cool Rides
Riding in Waymo on the freeway in rider-only! This isn't a one-off. We are driving in rider-only on the freeway every day in SF, Phoenix, and LA (link).
‘Where my front seat Waymo riders at? 🧐’ (link). I’m ‘team front seat’ as there’s more room and you can adjust your seat accordingly. The back seat is surprisingly uncomfortable for a $75,000 car - especially on an 80 minute ride. But if you are going to ride in the back, move the front seat all the way up. Looking forward to Waymo adding ‘seat preferences’ so the position is set when you get in.
‘I finally had my first autonomous ride!’ (link).
‘Was a Waymo skeptic the first time I saw one being tested in Phoenix last year… My husband’s son lives in SF and suggested we try it. So, we finally rode in one’ (link).
AVs/Humans behaving badly
Two Waymos crash into each other at Phoenix Airport (link). How the heck do two Waymos hit each other? They’ve got lidar, radar and cameras but I’m surprised they don’t know where other Waymos are. Then maybe they could handle the following situation a little better…
Two Waymos going the same speed but wanting to switch lanes (link).
‘Tesla’s ride started off a little rocky thanks to a major mistake it made, but after that, it was smooth sailing’ (link). This robotaxi missed the left turn lane and tried to make a left turn from the center lane. But I was also surprised at how many times the safety driver hit the screen to try and stop the car.
‘The Waymo Driver offers a consistent and safe experience across cities. Skills for safety-critical situations transfer very well: what's learned in one, like handling lane-cutters in LA or Austin, applies to others’ (link). These human drivers were terrible lol.
Aftermath of Waymo and LA Metro bus accident (link). I’m gonna guess the bus driver hit the Waymo here lol.
Other Stuff
Cruise co-founder Kyle Vogt compares Waymo and Tesla’s approach to autonomy.
What I see is really Tesla as a company who kind of pioneered the end-to-end neural network approach to self-driving, which I think is the right technical bet long term.
They built (Waymo) this highly-validated, robust system that's now on public roads, and it's great. But they know that it's the wrong technical approach, and they need to move more in the direction of Tesla, of more neural networks.
It is just intractable to maintain a 3D map of every square inch of the planet and update it in real time, and then expect that every time you go somewhere, the map is still accurate on one hand, and also probably unrealistic to assume that every car built in the future is going to have these giant spinning KFC buckets on the roof.
To Waymo's credit, I think they know this, and they've started moving towards a Tesla-like approach.
Union-Backed Boston Ordinance Would Require Drivers in Driverless Waymos (link). As the author notes, “One has to admire Boston unions for largely not even bothering to come up with public-spirited justifications for trying to hamstring driverless car services. They're explicit about their protectionism.”
On the regulatory side, Waymo is going to be facing opposition on two major fronts: safety and labor. So far, it’s been all about safety but this is the first time we’re seeing organized labor step up and fight AVs. It would be smart for Waymo to take a more active role in working with human drivers since I think it’s going to be a long time before we come close to 100% AV ridehail.
Tesla ‘Robotaxi’ launches rides in the San Francisco Bay Area with a massive geofence (link). Invites are now going out to riders, and Tesla’s ‘coverage area’ significantly dwarfs Waymo’s. But it’s worth noting: while Waymo operates fully driverless within its zone, Tesla’s newly launched robotaxis will still have a safety driver behind the wheel for now.
Waymo is heading back to Nashville, Tennessee for another road trip (link).
The Uber-Lucid-Nuro deal has unique aspects that mainstream media is not giving sufficient attention (link). Monday’s podcast will feature an interview with Nuro COO, Andrew Chapin. Hope you enjoy!
Waymo Factory 4 Months Later (link).
‘Texas Highways Have a New Nighttime Creature: Autonomous Trucks (link, no paywall).’ Except it doesn’t sound like they’re autonomous yet.
Aurora’s trucks do have a human behind the wheel, just in case.
Pony AI says it has permit for driverless robotaxi services in Shanghai area (link, no paywall).
Waymo now has a new pull ahead feature in the app, that makes your vehicle pull ahead from the original drop off/moves (link). Not sure exactly what this feature does or how helpful it will be, but will definitely try it out.
LG Innotek Invests In Aeva 4D Lidar For Next-Generation Perception (link, no paywall).
Terawatt is hosting the next Mobility SF meetup at their San Francisco HQ, on Thursday, August 21st from 6:00–9:00pm. It will feature Ossa Fisher, President of Aurora, for a fireside chat on the autonomous freight revolution and her leadership journey across tech and transportation. If you’re interested in attending, feel free to RSVP here.
What else we're listening to
Cheeky Pint by John Collison: The Bot Company founder and CEO Kyle Vogt on home robots and why he’ll never sell another company (link). I featured Kyle’s thoughts on Tesla vs Waymo above, but I’m also interested in the robotics and motor space since it is adjacent to, and has a lot of synergies to autonomous vehicles and AV fleet infrastructure. In my opinion, now is a huge inflection point for the industry and I made my first investment in the space recently. And looking to make a few more.
The Impact of Autonomous Vehicles on Real Estate with Brad Hargreaves (link). My latest podcast episode is with
, a real estate expert and editor of , a publication covering innovation in the built world. We discussed the upcoming transformations in real estate driven by AVs — the anticipated decline of some urban infrastructure like gas stations and urban parking garages. We also chatted about how different long commutes would be and how this will contribute to exurban migration.RSG265: Lyft Completes FREENOW Acquisition, Eyes Global Expansion (link).
Neat Jobs
Senior Counsel, Tech Transactions, Autonomous Vehicles at Uber (link) via Lando Juarez.
Product Manager, Partner Trip Platform at Waymo (link) via Tyler Fox.
Backend Software Engineer at Lyft (link) via Anuj Gupta.
Vehicle Operator, Autopilot at Tesla — in Brooklyn, Houston, Tampa, Miami, and more (link).
Until next week.
-Harry