Waymo and Uber Divorce in Phoenix. Are Austin and Atlanta Next?

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss the end of Waymo and Uber's partnership in Phoenix, Tesla's Cybercab hitting the streets of Austin branded for America 250 and Waymo's "Because they're everything" World Cup campaign.

As Tesla gets closer and closer to putting the Cybercab into service, the U.S. Government is inching toward a national framework that would allow vehicles with no steering wheel and no pedals to deploy across all 50 states and charge for rides.

It is the regulatory environment that we believe Tesla is waiting to change before deploying Cybercab into the fleet, even if the rides are free. As Tesla waits for regulatory certainty, The Road to Autonomy broke the news that Waymo and Uber quietly ended their Phoenix partnership, noticing an update on the Uber autonomous vehicle site.

The Phoenix partnership, which lasted 948 days, consisted of a fleet of 12 vehicles that serviced a 180 square mile area. Important to note that this was a dedicated fleet for Uber and the vehicles were not part of the traditional Waymo fleet.

Now that Waymo and Uber have divorced in Phoenix, we believe it is only a matter of time until they divorce in Austin, where the service has been live for 482 days, and Atlanta, where the service has been live for 370 days. Both partnerships could unwind by the first quarter of 2027.

On the Foreign Autonomy Desk, Grayson and Walt discuss the global growth of FSD and Volkswagen and Bosch ending their automated driving partnership, the latest in a long line of stalled autonomy efforts at the German automaker.

Episode Chapters

00:00 Happy 250th Birthday, America

1:15 Waymo and Uber Phoenix Divorce

5:47 Dara, Nuro and Wayve Signals

8:24 Who Could Backfill Phoenix for Uber?

13:52 The Fizzling Demand Narrative

17:51 Cybercab, Branded for America 250

21:53 Regulatory, Not Safety, Is Holding Cybercab Back

24:50 Tesla Semi

25:54 Waymo's World Cup Because They're Everything Campaign

28:06 Robotaxis at Airports

29:32 Chinese Made Vehicles

31:11 Foreign Autonomy Desk

34:15 Next Week

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