Uber to Austin: get ready for Waymo

Uber is getting ready for the launch of Waymo’s public robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, prompting customers to join a list of people interested in riding in the Alphabet-owned company’s AVs when they finally go live. It also revealed photos of the new co-branded robotaxis that will operate across a swath of the Texas capital as part of the new service.

Currently, Waymo isn’t open to the public in Austin. The company’s driverless vehicles are only available to a small group of people who joined Waymo’s waitlist to become early testers of the service. Waymo has not said when the service will open up to the broader public, but reading between the lines of this Uber announcement, it sounds like it may be soon. (A spokesperson for Waymo didn’t respond to a request for comment.)

When it does launch, Waymo’s vehicles will be available exclusively on Uber’s app in Austin. The two companies first announced their partnership to put Waymo’s robotaxis on Uber’s app back in 2023. They ran a pilot in Phoenix and now plan on launching the first official version in Austin, with Atlanta to follow.

Waymo’s own ridehail app, Waymo One, will not be operational in Austin. Customers who open Waymo One will be redirected to Uber’s app.

To prepare, Uber is asking customers in Austin to indicate their interest in being passengers in Waymo’s fully driverless (the company calls them “rider only”) vehicles. In the app settings under “Preferences,” customers can choose to join the “interest list” to get updates about Waymo’s launch and increase their chance of being paired with an autonomous vehicle when the service goes live.

The co-branded vehicles will also soon be spotted tooling around Austin without a driver behind the wheel. The vehicles will only operate within a geofenced 37-square-mile swath of the city that includes Hyde Park, Montopolis, and downtown.

Uber customers that get paired with a Waymo will “pay the same rates as UberX, Uber Green, Uber Comfort, or Uber Comfort Electric,” the company says. (Ride prices for all ridehailing, robo or otherwise, fluctuate based on traffic and the time of day.) Those fares will be provided upfront before customers accept the ride, and once the vehicle arrives, customers can unlock and start the ride from the Uber app. (There’s also a “start ride” button in the vehicle.)

The two companies will share the responsibilities of running and managing a fleet of autonomous vehicles. Uber will use contractors for vehicle cleaning, repair, and other general depot operations, while Waymo will handle roadside assistance (when the robotaxis inevitably get stuck) and customer service. They will obviously share in the costs and the revenue produced by the robotaxi service, though both companies have declined to share the split.

Waymo currently operates its own Waymo One ridehail service in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles; it recently hit the milestone of operating 150,000 rides each week in all three cities. Studies have shown that Waymo has better customer retention than human-powered ridehail services like Uber and Lyft.