Waymo has told Uber it intends to operate robotaxis on its own app in Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia, starting in January 2028, according to what Uber told TechCrunch. The Financial Times first reported Waymo's plans to wind down the partnership, which TechCrunch cited on July 24, 2026. CNBC reported the same day that the two companies will end their exclusivity arrangement in those markets in early 2028.

The contract between Waymo and Uber covering Austin and Atlanta runs through May 2028, per Uber's account to TechCrunch. Waymo vehicles will remain on Uber's platform through at least that point, Transport Topics reported, citing Uber's statement about the contract duration. Waymo did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's request for comment on the reported plans.

The Alphabet-owned company's robotaxis are currently available on Uber's ride-hailing network in Austin and Atlanta. The two cities represent the remaining geographic footprint of a partnership that has already begun contracting. Waymo and Uber's arrangement in Phoenix, Arizona, ended earlier in 2026, with TechCrunch first reporting the Phoenix split on June 29, 2026. The partnership was not always shrinking: in September 2024, Waymo published a blog post announcing the expansion of its Uber partnership to bring autonomous ride-hailing to Atlanta, with public riders expected via the Uber app starting in early 2025.

The relationship between the two companies has shown visible strain beyond the commercial terms. In May 2026, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi criticized robotaxi behavior in school zones and emergency situations during an Uber earnings call, without explicitly naming Waymo. Earlier in 2026, Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli posted a video on X criticizing what he described as unsafe behavior by a Waymo robotaxi. The two companies have also been on opposite sides of policy fights over robotaxi regulations.

Waymo, for its part, has been building infrastructure that does not depend on Uber. The company announced a fleet partnership with Moove in December 2024 to support its Miami operations, with plans to open to riders in 2026. In April 2025, Waymo and Toyota reached a preliminary agreement to explore collaboration on autonomous driving development and deployment. Neither of those moves involves Uber's platform.

The trajectory here is consistent with a pattern visible across the autonomous vehicle industry since its earliest commercialization efforts: a platform company and a fleet operator form a partnership to share go-to-market risk in early deployment cities, and the arrangement holds until one party's scale or strategic priorities diverge from the other's. Waymo's own app already operates in Phoenix and San Francisco. Bringing Austin and Atlanta in-house would consolidate the consumer-facing relationship under Waymo's brand and data stack, eliminating the intermediary layer that Uber provides. For Uber, losing exclusive access to Waymo's fleet in those markets narrows the autonomous supply available through its network, at least until other AV partners fill the gap.

The friction between the two companies on safety and regulatory questions adds a dimension beyond commercial renegotiation. When a partner's CTO publicly posts video criticizing your vehicles' behavior, and the CEO raises concerns about robotaxi conduct near schools during an earnings call, the partnership has moved from standard commercial tension into something harder to paper over. The regulatory divergence matters too: if Waymo and Uber are actively lobbying for opposing rules governing the deployment of autonomous vehicles, the commercial partnership rests on an increasingly unstable political foundation.

Worth flagging is the timing gap. Waymo has signaled January 2028 for direct operations while the contract runs through May 2028. That five-month window suggests Waymo is not breaking the contract but positioning to transition at or near its natural expiration, assuming the January date holds. Whether Uber treats that as good-faith planning or an attempt to redirect riders and data ahead of the contract's end is the kind of question that typically gets litigated, not answered in press statements.

The broader context is that Waymo's fleet partnerships and OEM agreements with companies like Moove and Toyota suggest a company methodically assembling the pieces for vertically integrated operations in multiple cities, with or without a ride-hailing intermediary. The Uber partnership may end up having served its purpose: accelerating Waymo's entry into Austin and Atlanta by leveraging Uber's existing rider base and operational infrastructure, then stepping aside once direct operations become viable. That is a well-established playbook in technology platform dynamics, and it does not require acrimony to explain, even if acrimony appears to be present here.