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A Waymo ride booked on the Uber app comes with no guarantee. From January 2028, Austin and Atlanta riders book direct in Waymo's own app, and Uber says it will keep listing Waymo's cars.
Starting in January 2028, riders in Austin and Atlanta will be able to book a Waymo driverless car in Waymo's own app, and Uber's app will no longer be the only way to get one. Co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana put the change on the record Wednesday in a Bloomberg News report, relayed the same day by TechCrunch. Uber confirmed to TechCrunch that it still plans to host Waymo's driverless cars on its app for as long as the two companies agree, and the wider agreement was reported earlier this year as set to expire in May 2028.
A rider in Austin or Atlanta can ask the Uber app for an autonomous vehicle, but a Waymo car arrives only if one happens to be nearby. Waymo's own help page says it cannot promise one: "we aren't able to guarantee Waymo rides on the Uber app every time." Mawakana called that arrangement "a little bit of a crapshoot" in an interview on The Circuit with Emily Chang, the Los Angeles Times reports. Waymo reached for Uber at the start because the ride-hail company offered scale, she said, and riders in San Francisco and other markets where Waymo already sells directly have come to expect one app to deliver one experience. "And at the same time, learning and partnering with Uber has been a really important part of our journey," she added.
Uber says the missing booking option was Waymo's call. The ride-hailing company told Bloomberg it had asked Waymo about adding an option to book a robotaxi, a driverless car, directly for Austin and Atlanta customers, and Waymo said no. The plan first surfaced in July through an Uber spokesperson's email to CNBC: "We have been notified by Waymo that they intend to launch the Waymo app in Austin and Atlanta in January 2028, alongside their existing deployment with Uber." CNBC reported that Uber shares dropped more than 4% on that news.
Waymo has not announced the launch on its own website. It did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment, a Waymo spokesperson declined to comment on its discussions with Uber for the Los Angeles Times, and Waymo's blog carries no Austin or Atlanta app announcement. Its two most recent posts, dated Oct. 27 and Oct. 28, cover expanded service areas and a business expense integration.
Hundreds of Waymo robotaxis will stay available on Uber's app in Atlanta and Austin through at least May 2028, the duration of their existing contract, Uber said. What ends in January 2028 is the arrangement that made Uber's app the only place to book a Waymo car in either city. Some of the work behind those rides sits with Uber's contractors. Avomo, an autonomous fleet operator, manages vehicle cleaning, maintenance, inspections, charging and depot operations for the Waymo-Uber partnership in Austin, TechCrunch reports.
Uber's app will also be able to carry other autonomous vehicles in both cities. CNBC's July report said the changes allow the ride-hailing company to put non-Waymo autonomous vehicles on its platform in Austin and Atlanta, and described Uber's wider vehicle commitments, including buying cars from Waabi, Wayve and Nuro, as well as from Rivian, after their self-driving systems are validated as safe to operate without a human supervisor on board.
Waymo robotaxis came off Uber's app in Phoenix around May 2026, and both companies told TechCrunch it was the contracted end date. Waymo folded those vehicles into its own Phoenix fleet, where riders book them in the Waymo app, and Uber said it was preparing a separate autonomous vehicle partnership in the city without naming the partner. That pilot ran just over a dozen dedicated vehicles, which Uber credits with helping it scale Austin and Atlanta, where hundreds of Waymo vehicles are available exclusively on Uber.
Waymo has leaned on partners such as Uber and Lyft, plus fleet management companies, to help operate a fleet of roughly 4,000 vehicles across the US, doing more than 500,000 trips a week in 14 cities, the Los Angeles Times reported. It already takes direct bookings in its own app in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles and elsewhere, and it agreed with Lyft in 2025 to bring robotaxi service to Nashville on a non-exclusive basis, CNBC reported. Waymo rides on average still cost more than cabs or ride-hails, the Los Angeles Times notes. "Price is not the first priority," Mawakana said of the competitive dynamics. "We are not trying to have this race to the bottom on what we're offering to our riders."
TechCrunch reported in July that Waymo and Uber have wound up on opposite sides of a series of policy fights over robotaxi regulation, after months of public friction over Waymo's driving in school zones and emergency situations. The Financial Times reported earlier this year that Waymo had held internal discussions about splitting from Uber.
Waymo's own rider pages for Austin and Atlanta still direct users to set a Waymo preference inside the Uber app, and Waymo's service map lists both cities with a "Ride on Uber" link. Neither has been updated for a change Mawakana put on the record on Wednesday. Uber has not said what it will put in the space left by Waymo's own app in those two cities.