The ride-hailing giant is calling Waymo's model “less scalable” and “less reliable” than Uber’s hybrid approach mixing human drivers and AVs.
Uber is committing more than $10 billion to an autonomous vehicle fleet, hedging its bets with a hybrid approach that mixes human drivers with robotaxis on a single ride-hailing platform, calling out Waymo's all-AV approach as unreliable, inequitable and, referring to one specific instance, "scary."
Electrek reports that Uber's investments in Rivian, Lucid, and Nuro represent a "strategic" move from a platform model to asset ownership:
"The real story here is that Uber got spooked. The company once believed it could be the platform layer on top of everyone’s robotaxis, taking a cut of every ride without owning any vehicles. But Waymo’s rapid scaling to 400,000 rides per week proved that AV operators might not need Uber at all. Waymo has its own app. It has its own customers. It’s expanding to new cities without Uber’s help," Electrek's analysis reads. "So Uber pivoted to asset ownership — $10 billion worth."
Waymo vehicles still operate on Uber’s platform in Austin and Atlanta.
FULL STORY: Uber turns on Waymo as it pours $10B+ into owning robotaxi alternatives
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