Waymo and Uber finish Phoenix robotaxi pilot, paving way for a new autonomous partnership in the city

Uber is ending its Phoenix robotaxi partnership with Waymo, according to a report published Tuesday. The collaboration, described as a nearly three-year pilot, has now wrapped up after the partners completed hundreds of thousands of trips in the Arizona city.

The report says Uber will not keep running the Waymo-operated service in Phoenix under the same arrangement. Instead, Uber said it will announce a new autonomous vehicle partner in the city, indicating a shift in how it plans to expand driverless ride service locally.

While Uber did not outline in the report how the pilot concludes operationally, the company characterized the effort as a trial run aimed at testing autonomous ride-hailing in a real-world urban environment. Robotaxis, or self-driving vehicles operating without a human driver, remain limited to select geographies and operating conditions, so pilots are often used to evaluate safety, reliability, and customer experience before larger deployments.

For Uber, the Phoenix program has served as one of its most visible commitments to fully autonomous mobility. The company has positioned autonomous vehicles as a way to reduce reliance on human drivers and potentially improve availability, though those outcomes depend on continuous service readiness and the ability to scale operations beyond small geographic areas.

Waymo, the Alphabet unit focused on self-driving technology, has been a long-time operator of robotaxi services in parts of Arizona. The decision to end this specific Uber collaboration does not necessarily announcement an end to robotaxi work by either company, but it does indicate that Uber is revisiting its local strategy and vendor relationships rather than extending the same partnership unchanged.

The abruptness of partnership shifts in autonomous programs is not unusual, but the timing here is notable. The report ties the wrap-up to last month’s completion of the pilot, meaning the project’s conclusion is recent, even if the underlying autonomous testing started years earlier.

Across the broader transport sector, autonomous ride-hailing has remained a high-stakes effort for both established automakers and technology firms. Pilots can generate valuable data, but scaling tends to be constrained by regulatory approvals, geo-fencing limits, and the cost of maintaining vehicle fleets and remote operations. In that context, Uber moving to a new partner for Phoenix suggests it still intends to keep pursuing driverless service there rather than pausing ambitions.

The report does not provide details on what Uber and Waymo have learned, whether the companies will publish any safety or performance metrics, or how riders’ access to autonomous trips will change day-to-day during the transition. It also does not disclose the identity of the next autonomous partner, the timing for onboarding, or the specific coverage area within Phoenix that would be served after the Waymo pilot ends.