Waymo has told Uber it plans to operate its self-driving taxis 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 intention 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.

Waymo, which is owned by Alphabet (Google's parent company), currently offers its autonomous ride-hailing service through Uber's app in Austin and Atlanta. Those two cities are the remaining footprint of a partnership that has already been shrinking. 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 had previously been expanding: in September 2024, Waymo published a blog post announcing it would bring autonomous ride-hailing to Atlanta via Uber, with public riders expected 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 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 found themselves on opposite sides of policy fights over robotaxi regulations.

Waymo 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 move involves Uber's platform.

The pattern here is familiar in the autonomous vehicle industry. A platform company and a fleet operator partner up to share the risk of entering new markets, and the arrangement holds until one party's scale or strategic priorities diverge. Waymo's own app already operates in Phoenix and San Francisco. Bringing Austin and Atlanta in-house would put the customer relationship entirely under Waymo's brand and data systems, removing the intermediary layer that Uber provides. For Uber, losing exclusive access to Waymo's fleet narrows the supply of autonomous rides on its network, at least until other self-driving partners fill the gap.

The friction on safety and regulatory questions adds a dimension beyond standard commercial renegotiation. When a partner's CTO publicly posts video criticizing your vehicles, and the CEO raises concerns about robotaxi conduct near schools during an earnings call, the partnership has moved past ordinary business tension into something harder to smooth over. The regulatory divergence matters too: if Waymo and Uber are actively lobbying for opposing rules on how autonomous vehicles can deploy, the commercial partnership rests on an unstable political foundation.

The timing gap is worth noting. 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 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 agreements with companies like Moove and Toyota suggest a company methodically assembling the pieces to run its own 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.