Waymo to End Exclusive Uber Partnership in Austin and Atlanta in January 2028

Waymo will end its exclusive robotaxi arrangement with Uber in Austin and Atlanta in January 2028 and offer rides in those cities through its own app, co-chief executive Tekedra Mawakana told Bloomberg News in an interview published Wednesday.

Under the current setup, riders in Austin and Atlanta can only hail a Waymo driverless car through the Uber app. From January 2028, Waymo plans to run the service directly, the same way it already does in San Francisco and other markets. Uber confirmed to TechCrunch on Wednesday that it still plans to host Waymo robotaxis on its app for as long as the two companies agree. Waymo did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TechCrunch.

Mawakana said the change came from rider feedback. In the early days of the partnership, she said, Uber gave Waymo scale it did not yet have. But riders in Austin and Atlanta could not be sure what kind of car would arrive.

“In the early days, we would partner because we didn’t have the scale, and in that partnering, it was a little bit of a crapshoot. Will I get a Waymo? Will I not get a Waymo?” Mawakana said. “It’s important for us to have that relationship with the rider. We’ve gotten that feedback from the riders in those markets.”

Two sides describe the split differently

Uber told Bloomberg that it had asked Waymo about adding an option in the Uber app so Austin and Atlanta customers could book a robotaxi directly, and that Waymo declined. Mawakana said riders had trouble securing Waymos in the two cities even though the Uber app lets them state a preference for a driverless car, according to the New York Post’s account of the interview.

The January 2028 date lines up with earlier reporting by the Financial Times that Waymo was looking to leave the Uber deal, which was set to expire in May 2028. Waymo has not added a new Uber city since Atlanta joined the platform in June 2025, according to earlier coverage.

What it means for riders

Waymo now operates about 4,000 vehicles across the United States and completes more than 500,000 trips per week in 14 cities, according to the New York Post. It already offers rides through its own app in San Francisco and other markets, putting it in direct competition with Uber there.

For riders in Austin and Atlanta, the practical change is a single app and a guaranteed Waymo when one is ordered, instead of a request that may return a human-driven car. Mawakana said the company wants a consistent offering from one app, and added that learning and partnering with Uber had been an important part of Waymo’s growth. She also said price is not the first priority for the company, telling Bloomberg: “We are not trying to have this race to the bottom on what we’re offering to our riders. We really want to elevate the experience over time.”

The split points to a wider shift in the robotaxi business. Carmakers that build driverless vehicles are starting to run their own ride services rather than relying on Uber or Lyft to reach customers, a pattern also visible in Tesla’s push for its own robotaxi app. Uber, for its part, has many other driverless partners and has said it plans to more than double the autonomous vehicles on its network by the end of next year.

Reporting based on coverage by TechCrunch, Bloomberg News and the New York Post.