---
title: "Waymo ends its exclusive Uber robotaxi partnership in Austin, Atlanta in January 2028, refuses to cut fares"
description: "Waymo will book those rides on its own app from January 2028, after its co-CEO called matching riders through Uber \"a little bit of a crapshoot\" and ruled out racing fares down. Uber trades at 17x forward earnings against a 25x average, the market's price for robotaxi fear."
publisher: "The Inference"
section: "Robotics & Defense"
published: 2026-11-13T17:43:51.811Z
modified: 2026-11-13T17:43:51.811Z
canonical: https://theinference.org/article/waymo-ends-its-exclusive-uber-robotaxi-partnership-in-austin-atlanta-in-january-2028-refuses-to-cut-fares
language: en
keywords: "Uber, Waymo, Robotaxis, Autonomous Vehicles, Alphabet"
---

# Waymo ends its exclusive Uber robotaxi partnership in Austin, Atlanta in January 2028, refuses to cut fares

> Waymo will book those rides on its own app from January 2028, after its co-CEO called matching riders through Uber "a little bit of a crapshoot" and ruled out racing fares down. Uber trades at 17x forward earnings against a 25x average, the market's price for robotaxi fear.

## Waymo calls the rider match a crapshoot

[Waymo](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/waymo), the robotaxi unit of [Alphabet](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/alphabet), will end its exclusive partnership with [Uber](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/uber) in Austin and Atlanta in January 2028 and start booking those rides on its own app [1][4]. Co-CEO [Tekedra Mawakana](https://theinference.org/markets/people/tekedra-mawakana) called the match "a little bit of a crapshoot. Will I get a Waymo? Will I not get a Waymo?" [1][4]. Riders there can request an autonomous car and get one only when one happens to be nearby [1][4].

The break was reported on November 4, 2026, the day Uber shares closed up 4.9% at $69.87 on a [third-quarter beat](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/uber-rises-5-q3-beat-211148163.html) sold as robotaxi execution [2][3]. [Zoox](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/zoox), [Amazon](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/amazon)'s robotaxi unit, is due to launch its vehicles on Uber in Las Vegas later this month [3][5][7], and January 2028 is when the market learns what Uber's role booking other companies' robotaxis is worth.

## The multiple already prices the robotaxi fear

Uber shares trade at about 17x forward earnings against a three-year average near 25x [2]. The discount has survived a fifth straight quarter of gross bookings growth of 20% or better: $59.8 billion booked in the September quarter, earnings per share (EPS) of $0.88 against $0.87 consensus, and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) up 31% to $2.96 billion [2][3].

Mobility, the rides business, saw revenue fall 2% to $7.5 billion as driver supply lagged demand in several international markets [2][3]. Five straight quarters of 20%-plus bookings growth have not closed the valuation gap, which points to a market pricing the robotaxi race rather than Uber's results [2]. Josh Brown, chief executive of Ritholtz Wealth Management, calls Uber "narratively challenged" [2].

*Chart: **Uber's revenue growth has slid to 9.6%, the slowest quarter in two years** Column chart of Uber's year-over-year revenue growth by quarter from Q2 2024 to Q3 2026, sliding from about 20% to 9.6% in the latest quarter.*

*Revenue growth, year over year, in percent, by quarter as reported in Uber's SEC filings, retrieved November 13, 2026. [6]*

## The partner leaving refuses to cut fares

Mawakana was blunt on price: "Price is not the first priority. We are not trying to have this race to the bottom" [1][4][5]. Waymo rides already cost more than taxis or ride-hails on average [1][4]. Riders who already use Waymo's own app in San Francisco want one consistent app in the new markets, and Waymo wants the relationship with the rider [4].

## Uber's defense is arithmetic nobody can audit

Uber's counter is arithmetic, company-claimed and unaudited: US robotaxi partners take about 30% more trips per vehicle per day on Uber's app than when they run their own service, which in Uber's illustrative math cuts fixed cost per trip about 23% after paying Uber's marketplace fee [5].

Uber asked Waymo for an easier robotaxi option in the app [4][5]. Waymo said no [4][5].

## The cash engine runs while the robotaxi fleet stays small

Uber generated $2.5 billion of free cash flow in the quarter, up from $2.2 billion a year earlier, and [its SEC filings](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001543151) show eight straight quarters between $1.7 billion and $2.8 billion [2][6]. Fully driverless rides are still under 0.5% of Uber's trips [2][7].

*Chart: **Uber's free cash flow has run between $1.7B and $2.8B for eight straight quarters** Line chart of Uber's quarterly free cash flow from Q4 2024 to Q3 2026, steady between 1.7 and 2.8 billion dollars.*

*Quarterly free cash flow in $ billions as reported in Uber's SEC filings, retrieved November 13, 2026. [2][6]*

The plan on the table is about 700 fully driverless vehicles on the app by December 31, 2026, and over 2,000 in 2027, roughly half of them abroad [2][3][5]. [More than 25 autonomous vehicle partners](https://theinference.org/article/uber-s-robotaxi-fleet-belongs-to-suppliers-who-also-sell-to-its-rivals) and a $1 billion fleet-financing template with Santander, the Spanish bank, move the vehicles' cost off Uber's books, though what those vehicles will be worth at the end of their working lives remains unproven [7].

## Waymo's fleet carries its own recall record

The partner leaving runs roughly 4,000 vehicles and more than 500,000 rides a week across 14 cities [1][4][5]. That fleet carries scars of its own: [a recall Waymo filed on April 30, 2026](https://electrek.co/2026/05/12/waymo-recalls-3791-robotaxis-flooded-road-ota-software-fix/), covering 3,791 robotaxis, after one drove into a flooded San Antonio road [8].

![Five Waymo robotaxis, Zeekr vehicles with lidar domes and Waymo written on their sides, parked in front of numbered depot bays at Waymo's Bayshore depot in San Francisco](https://storage.googleapis.com/theinference-public/img/655f53cb011012f7.jpg)

*Waymo robotaxis at the company's Bayshore depot in San Francisco in December 2025. Waymo plans to expand its fleet fivefold by 2027. (Dllu)*

*Chart: **Waymo runs 4,000 robotaxis today against Uber targets of about 700 and over 2,000** Bar chart: Waymo runs 4,000 robotaxis today versus Uber driverless targets of about 700 by December 31, 2026, and over 2,000 by end 2027.*

*Vehicles. Waymo fleet as reported November 2026; Uber figures are company targets (est.). [1][2][3][4][5]*

US safety regulators opened [recall query RQ26006](https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/general/nhtsa-s-recall-query-could-force-waymo-into-the-largest-autonomous-vehicle-recall-in-us-history/ar-AA2h5roS) into 2,895 Waymo vehicles on November 9, 2026, over robotaxis that passed stopped school buses, most of the violations logged after Waymo certified its November 17, 2025, software fix [9]. The query will judge whether that fix worked, and a finding that it did not can force a mandatory recall [9].

## Waymo's case rests on 220 million driverless miles

Waymo's record is the argument: more than 220 million fully autonomous miles and a company-reported 94% fewer serious-injury crashes than human drivers [9]. It plans to expand its fleet fivefold by 2027 [5], and its vehicles are no longer available through Uber at all in Phoenix [10].

## Two autonomy leaders leave Uber on November 16

Danny Guo, Uber's vice president of engineering and science and the architect of AV Labs, the data unit meant to feed robotaxi partners rare edge-case miles, leaves on November 16, 2026 [10]. He goes the same day as Sarfraz Maredia, Uber's global head of autonomous mobility and delivery [10].

Both leave weeks before fully driverless testing starts on Uber's largest robotaxi project: 35,000 robotaxis ordered from Lucid, an electric vehicle maker, and Nuro, a delivery-robot developer [10]. Uber has committed about $10 billion to driverless partners and investments [5][10], the borrowed-autonomy bet [covered in September](https://theinference.org/article/uber-bets-10b-on-other-people-s-ai-while-cutting-its-own).

What Uber rents out in return is demand at scale: about 320 million trips and orders in Halloween week, the same week in which AI agents booked four rides and placed about 500 Uber Eats orders [5]. The risk on the record is that the best fleets keep their rides for themselves [2].

## The tests start this month and run to January 2028

The dates now come with numbers attached. Amazon's Zoox is due to put robotaxis on Uber in Las Vegas later this month, followed by Motional, an autonomous vehicle developer [3][5][7]. Uber has put about 700 fully driverless vehicles on the app by December 31, 2026, in writing [2][3], and a Lucid and Nuro service in the San Francisco Bay Area in the first quarter of 2027 [5][10].

## Texas permits count cars, not riders

Austin, where Waymo goes direct in January 2028, sits in Texas, where [Tesla](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/tesla), [Elon Musk](https://theinference.org/markets/people/elon-musk)'s electric car maker, passed Waymo on robotaxi permits this month in a state registry that counts vehicles a company may run, not riders carried ([covered November 12, 2026](https://theinference.org/article/tesla-passes-waymo-on-texas-robotaxi-permits-1-302-to-1-297-and-the-registry-counts-no-riders)) [11]. Uber says it will keep hosting Waymo robotaxis for as long as both companies agree [5].

The discount treats Waymo's exit as the start of a fare war, but the partner leaving has ruled out cutting fares [1]. The loss is of supply, not margin.

## Takeaway

Waymo books Austin and Atlanta rides on its own app from January 2028, and its co-CEO has ruled out cutting fares, so the exit costs Uber supply rather than margin. At about 17x forward earnings against a three-year average near 25x, Uber is priced for a robotaxi threat that has not yet reached its free cash flow.

## Sources

1. [Benzinga via Yahoo Finance, Waymo Co-CEO Calls Uber Partnership 'Crapshoot' as Company Plots Its Exit, 4 November 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/waymo-co-ceo-calls-uber-224238130.html)
2. [Wiltone Asuncion, Uber Beat on 20% Bookings Growth. Josh Brown Says It's Just 'Narratively Challenged', Yahoo Finance, 5 November 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/uber-beat-20-bookings-growth-050941236.html)
3. [Michael Douglass, Uber Rises 5% on Q3 Beat as Robotaxi Push Turns to 'Commercial Execution', Yahoo Finance, 4 November 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/uber-rises-5-q3-beat-211148163.html)
4. [Natalie Lung and Emily Chang, Waymo plans to end Uber exclusivity in Austin and Atlanta with its own robotaxi app, Los Angeles Times, 4 November 2026](https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-11-04/waymo-plans-to-end-uber-exclusivity-in-austin-atlanta-with-its-own-robotaxi-app)
5. [Darius Popa, Waymo's co-CEO tells Bloomberg the Uber tie-up was a 'crapshoot' for riders, The Next Web, 6 November 2026](https://thenextweb.com/news/waymos-co-ceo-tells-bloomberg-the-uber-tie-up-was-a-crapshoot-for-riders)
6. [Uber, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 13 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001543151)
7. [Frederick Rodriguez, Uber CEO makes history with first-ever driverless fleet targets: 700 by year-end, 10,000 by 2028, Tech Times via MSN, 4 November 2026](https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/self-driving-cars/uber-ceo-makes-history-with-first-ever-driverless-fleet-targets-700-by-year-end-10-000-by-2028/ar-AA2gLaBq)
8. [Fred Lambert, Waymo recalls 3,791 robotaxis over flooded road incident, deploying OTA software fix, Electrek, 12 May 2026](https://electrek.co/2026/05/12/waymo-recalls-3791-robotaxis-flooded-road-ota-software-fix/)
9. [Luke McKenzie, NHTSA's recall query could force Waymo into the largest autonomous vehicle recall in US history, Tech Times via MSN, 9 November 2026](https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/general/nhtsa-s-recall-query-could-force-waymo-into-the-largest-autonomous-vehicle-recall-in-us-history/ar-AA2h5roS)
10. [Stewart Burnett, Uber loses more AV leadership as exodus continues, Automotive World, 10 November 2026](https://www.automotiveworld.com/news/uber-loses-more-av-leadership-as-exodus-continues/)
11. [Vincent Jiang, Tesla passes Waymo on Texas robotaxi permits, 1,302 to 1,297, and the registry counts no riders, The Inference, 12 November 2026](https://theinference.org/article/tesla-passes-waymo-on-texas-robotaxi-permits-1-302-to-1-297-and-the-registry-counts-no-riders)


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Waymo ends its exclusive Uber robotaxi partnership in Austin, Atlanta in January 2028, refuses to cut fares — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/waymo-ends-its-exclusive-uber-robotaxi-partnership-in-austin-atlanta-in-january-2028-refuses-to-cut-fares