en.Wedoany.com Reported - Waymo, a US autonomous driving company, and ride-hailing platform Uber have ended their autonomous taxi pilot service in Phoenix, Arizona. Users will no longer be able to hail Waymo vehicles through the Uber app in Phoenix.

Uber stated that Phoenix was the first pilot market for its partnership with Waymo, operating only a limited fleet of about 10 vehicles. Based on the experience gained from this collaboration, hundreds of Waymo vehicles are now operating on the Uber platform in Austin and Atlanta, with the service area continuing to expand.

The Waymo vehicles operating in Phoenix have not been withdrawn from service but have been redeployed for autonomous delivery services on the food delivery platform DoorDash. Waymo described the project as a productive pilot that laid the foundation for expanding the partnership to more regions in the future.

Currently, Waymo operates approximately 4,000 autonomous vehicles in the US. In Austin and Atlanta, users can only access autonomous taxis through the Uber app, while in nine other cities, Waymo primarily provides services through its own app, with some operations integrated with public transit connections. Additionally, Waymo plans to launch an autonomous taxi service in Nashville, USA, this year via the ride-hailing platform Lyft, which is not an exclusive contract form similar to its partnership with Uber.

Industry analysts believe that Waymo is shifting toward a strategy that does not rely on a single platform but instead leverages both its own service and multiple platforms simultaneously. In addition to its partnership with Waymo, Uber collaborates with autonomous driving companies such as Rivian, Zoox, Pony.ai, and Bern, but not with Tesla. Uber also plans to partner with a new autonomous driving company in Phoenix, though it has not disclosed the specific company name.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi stated during the first-quarter earnings call that the number of autonomous vehicle trips on the Uber platform has increased more than tenfold year-over-year, with services currently operating in eight cities and plans to expand to up to 15 cities by the end of the year. Tesla currently operates a limited autonomous taxi service in Texas using 69 registered vehicles and obtained a permit in Arizona last year for ride-hailing services and autonomous driving testing with safety drivers. Amazon's Zoox also plans to conduct testing in Phoenix this year to expand its autonomous taxi service.

Waymo recently proactively issued two software recalls to address issues related to vehicles entering construction zones on Phoenix highways.