Uber Technologies NYSE:UBER has wound down its robotaxi offering with Alphabet's NASDAQ:GOOG Waymo in Phoenix, marking the latest shift in a partnership that continues to look both strategic and competitive. Phoenix was the first market where Waymo offered paid rides through its own app in 2020, before it later brought part of its robotaxi fleet onto Uber's platform under a multiyear deal signed in 2023. The Phoenix program stayed intentionally limited, with just over a dozen Waymo vehicles dedicated to Uber for robotaxi rides and on-demand food deliveries.
The ride-hailing portion of the Phoenix partnership ended last month after hundreds of thousands of trips, while the food delivery side ended in May 2025. Waymo said those vehicles will now be folded back into its broader fleet to support its delivery agreement with DoorDash and a public transit partnership with Via Transportation that began last year. Phoenix riders can still book Waymo rides directly through the Waymo app, suggesting the end of Uber's local offering does not mean Waymo is pulling back from the market.
For investors, the bigger question is whether Uber can become the go-to platform for robotaxi commercialization, or whether it could face pressure if operators such as Waymo and Tesla choose to keep more autonomous rides off Uber's app. Uber's shares have fallen more than 18% over the past 12 months, trailing the S&P 500's 20% gain, as concerns remain around how driverless fleets could reshape ride-hailing. Uber has signed agreements with more than a dozen autonomous vehicle providers, including Lucid, Nuro, Zoox, Avride, Baidu and WeRide, but management has said many of these partnerships may not start or scale meaningfully for at least a few more years.