Waymo will end its arrangement with Uber in Austin and Atlanta starting in January 2028, according to TechCrunch, which reported on Wednesday, November 4, 2026 that co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana confirmed the plan to Bloomberg News. After the split, Waymo will sell rides directly through its own smartphone app, as it already does in other cities, TechCrunch says.

What was reported

  • The split takes effect in January 2028 in Austin and Atlanta. The original Uber agreement is set to expire in May 2028, per TechCrunch.
  • No financial terms or other contract details were disclosed.
  • TechCrunch says Mawakana’s remarks back up an earlier Financial Times report that Waymo wanted out of the Uber deal.

What Mawakana said, per Bloomberg

According to TechCrunch’s account of the Bloomberg interview, Waymo originally partnered with Uber for the scale the ride-hailing company offered. Mawakana described the rider experience on the Uber platform as “a little bit of a crapshoot,” because riders cannot know whether they will get a robotaxi or a human-driven car. She said riders in those markets had given Waymo that feedback and that “it’s important for us to have that relationship with the rider.”

Uber’s response

Uber told Bloomberg, according to TechCrunch, that Waymo chose not to add an option in the Uber app for riders to book a robotaxi directly. TechCrunch notes that Uber has many robotaxi and other autonomous-vehicle partners.

Earlier reporting

Just Auto reported on July 27, 2026 that Uber said Waymo had already told it that it plans to operate on its own in Austin and Atlanta from January 2028, when the current contract allows, and that Uber expected to keep offering Waymo rides in both cities until May 2028. It also reported that Waymo had not ruled out a full separation, that Waymo vehicles in those cities were booked only through Uber’s app, and that each side had aired grievances, including Waymo’s on vehicle cleanliness and routing and Uber’s on the deal’s financial terms. Waymo and Uber began working together in Phoenix in May 2023, and that arrangement ended in May when its agreement expired, Just Auto said.

Sources and notes

This post is based on TechCrunch’s brief by Sean O’Kane, published at 10:12 a.m. PST on November 4, 2026, which relays Bloomberg’s interview with Mawakana and Uber’s statement to Bloomberg; Lens did not read Bloomberg’s report or the Financial Times reporting. The earlier-reporting section comes from Just Auto’s article of July 27, 2026. Lens did not contact Waymo or Uber.

Image: a Waymo robotaxi (Jaguar I-Pace) on a street in Austin, Texas, by ajay_suresh via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 4.0; cropped. Illustrative photo; it does not show the events described.