Uber’s Hybrid Pitch Comes at the Expense of Business Partner Waymo

Couples go through bumps, and so do business partners.

In recent months, Uber and its executives have taken direct and indirect shots at its robotaxi partner Waymo, warning against autonomous vehicle operators trying to scale on their own while also criticizing Waymo’s deployment strategy and technology, with one executive sharing a video on X of a “scary Waymo moment.”

The comments portray AV-only operators like Alphabet’s Waymo as less scalable, less equitable, and less reliable than a hybrid approach — with a mix of human and automated drivers — that makes Uber the AV partner of choice.

Taken together, Uber’s statements show the delicate role it’s trying to play as an arbiter between two competing forces: cities and labor groups skeptical of driverless fleets, and AV companies seeking to usher in a new era of transportation.

“Despite the incredible progress AVs are making around the world, and the enormous potential they hold, they are still far from capable of meeting the level of reliability and ubiquity that customers and cities expect,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in February, adding that the AV operators’ limits “only serve to reinforce the value of a hybrid network.”

Uber and Waymo first announced a multiyear partnership in 2023, starting in Phoenix, and adding Austin and Atlanta the following year. In the last two cities, partnerships entail using Uber as the sole app to hail a Waymo robotaxi.

Since then, Waymo expanded its service — without Uber — in five more cities.

In a white paper outlining Uber’s AV policy plans, published Friday by Axios, the ride-hailing company said a “two-tier transportation system” could emerge when AV operations are left to pure market dynamics, pointing to the Bay Area, where Uber said the two-tier system “is already real.”

“In San Francisco, for example, AV operations have expanded into some of the wealthiest neighborhoods while remaining absent from nearby cities like Oakland,” the paper said.

Waymo is the only AV operator to have scaled commercial operations across multiple cities in the Bay Area, but has yet to deploy in East Bay Area cities like Oakland or Berkeley. Uber doesn’t name Waymo in the paper.

On April 17, at a panel hosted by the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco, the company’s public policy head for the state directly hit Waymo on the same equity issues.

“I don’t want to put Waymo on blast here, but Waymo is permitted for Oakland. Oakland is a dense city. It does have a population similar to San Francisco that would be receptible to autonomous vehicles,” Danielle Lam, Uber’s head of local California policy, said. “Why not Oakland? Why Santa Monica? In terms of Uber’s position on this, we are looking for equitable distribution.”

In a statement to Business Insider, an Uber spokesperson said the company’s position wasn’t aimed at any specific company.

“We will make no apologies for advocating for a hybrid future, which is both provably more efficient at matching supply across the peaks and valleys of rideshare demand, and of course represents a better future for drivers than merely advocating for their replacement,” the spokesperson said. “A growing number of players worldwide have L4 autonomous vehicle technology — we have proudly partnered with basically all of them, and will continue to launch AVs in new markets at a rapid rate.”

A ride-hailing traffic cop

While Uber continues to bet on autonomy, the company has supported moves that could slow down AV rollouts in major cities.

Uber has said that New York City is the “largest ridesharing market in the world,” making up 10% of its US trips.

Waymo has long set its target on the city, deploying a limited fleet for testing last year. In February, Waymo was dealt a blow when Gov. Kathy Hochul withdrew a proposal to change the state’s vehicle laws to effectively legalize robotaxi operations outside NYC.

An Uber spokesperson cited the AV industry’s “failure to advance new regulation” as one of the reasons it needs to reexamine its deployment strategy.

“Today we partner with cities instead of confronting them,” Andrew Macdonald, Uber’s chief operating officer, wrote in a LinkedIn post.

A New York Times report on the withdrawal said the sudden pullback was related to the governor’s efforts to secure support for her auto insurance reforms from labor unions that oppose driverless cars, including the New York Taxi Workers Alliance.

“Based on conversations with stakeholders, including in the legislature, it was clear that the support was not there to advance this proposal,” a spokesperson for Hochul’s office told Business Insider.

A December report from CityLand quoted Bhairavi Desai, the executive director of New York Taxi Workers Alliance, calling for a “moratorium and a study” on AV testing and deployment in the city.

Josh Gold, the senior director of public policy and communications at Uber, was also quoted as saying that Desai’s moratorium had a “lot of merit,” according to the report.

“We need to be thoughtful about a transition,” Gold was quoted as saying. “Slowing down and figuring the right path is important.”

A spokesperson for the New York Taxi Workers Alliance did not respond to a request for comment.

Uber said in its white paper that it estimates 8,000 US cities where the company already operates won’t support AVs in the foreseeable future, and that a hybrid network will allow the technology to “scale thoughtfully.”

‘Scary Waymo moment’

Uber’s paper also highlighted how AV systems continue to “struggle” with edge cases as they scale.

On Monday, Waymo announced a software recall for 3,800 robotaxis after an incident in San Antonio in which a Waymo robotaxi drove into a flooded roadway.

Cases of Waymo mishaps have been well documented online as the Alphabet company continues to increase its US presence.

One such video popped up on X on April 29, appearing to show a Waymo overtaking one of San Francisco’s Muni buses.

The video came from Uber’s C-suite: Praveen Neppalli Naga, the company’s chief technology officer, who appeared to be driving on the day of the encounter.

“Big fan of AVs, but perception ≠ judgment,” he wrote, referring to Waymo’s notoriously heavy sensor stack. “Edge cases matter!”

An Uber spokesperson said the post speaks for itself.

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