Uber Technologies Inc. on Tuesday will begin offering its customers driverless Waymo rides in Atlanta, making it the second market, after Austin, where the two companies are teaming up instead of competing against each other.
Dozens of Waymo’s robotaxis will service 65 square miles (168 square kilometers) of Atlanta, Uber said, including from downtown, to Buckhead and to Capitol View, with plans to expand in the future. Uber had told riders in April they can increase their chances of getting an autonomous vehicle, or AV, by indicating their preference in the Uber app. Users will always have the option to accept a driverless ride or to switch to a human-operated car before a car is dispatched to them, the company said.
Atlanta is poised to become a competitive market in the AV space. Uber’s rival Lyft Inc. is expected to launch an autonomous ride-hailing service — with safety operators onboard — in partnership with Toyota Motor Corp.-backed May Mobility Inc. “as soon as this summer.” Amazon.com Inc.’s Zoox Inc. has also been testing its driverless technology in the city’s downtown area.
Uber first began working with Alphabet Inc.-owned Waymo to offer rides and deliveries in Phoenix in 2023. While Waymo also operates its service through its own consumer app in Phoenix, along with San Francisco and Los Angeles, Uber is the sole platform where passengers can hail Waymo’s electric Jaguar I-PACE robotaxis in Austin and Atlanta. In addition, Uber operates driverless rides with Chinese firm WeRide Inc. in Abu Dhabi, contributing to an annual run rate of 1.5 million passenger and delivery autonomous trips, it said.
Customers in Austin have been happy with the autonomous experience so far, Uber added, with riders rating their Waymo trips 4.9 out of five stars on average.
For Uber, which has struck more than a dozen AV partnerships globally, the performance of the Atlanta tie-up with Waymo will be crucial in efforts to convince Wall Street that it can be the go-to commercial platform for driverless carmakers. Uber’s pitch is that its brand name and its experience in matching drivers to riders can generate enough customer demand — and revenue — to cover the costs of producing and maintaining autonomous vehicles.
While it will take time for Waymo to expand its current fleet of 1,500 cars to a level that’s comparable to the number of drivers Uber has in major markets, bearish investors have nonetheless expressed doubts about Uber’s future in the event Waymo decides not to extend the partnership to more cities.
Waymo now has 100 vehicles available on the ride-hailing platform in Austin, Uber has said, and expects to have hundreds of vehicles servicing Austin and Atlanta over the next few years.
Written by: Natalie Lung @Bloomberg
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