Uber Reaffirms Waymo Partnership as Q2 Bookings Reach $58 Billion
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on August 5 that the company's Waymo partnership remains strong in Austin and Atlanta, despite the end of their Phoenix arrangement. Uber's official second-quarter release reported $58.0 billion in gross bookings, up 24% year over year, and said the company is accelerating work to build a large autonomous-vehicle platform.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi reaffirmed the company's partnership with Waymo during its August 5 earnings call. The Verge reported that Uber and Waymo expect to continue operating together in Austin and Atlanta even after ending their Phoenix partnership earlier in 2026.
Khosrowshahi described Waymo as an important partner and said the on-the-ground relationship remained strong. He also said Uber does not want to depend on a single autonomous-driving provider; The Verge noted the company's relationships with developers including Zoox, Wayve, Avride, Nuro, Motional, and Waabi.
Earnings provide the operating backdrop
Uber's official second-quarter release, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on August 5, reported $58.02 billion in gross bookings, up 24% year over year. Revenue rose 12% to $14.19 billion, while trips increased 18% to 4.03 billion.
For the third quarter, Uber forecast gross bookings of $58.25 billion to $60.25 billion and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.84 to $0.88. The release said Uber is accelerating its cross-platform strategy and working toward a large autonomous-vehicle platform, but it did not quantify future robotaxi spending.
The Verge separately reported that Uber has said it plans to spend upward of $10 billion to build the robotaxi business over time. That figure should be read as a broad long-term ambition, not as a single-quarter capital commitment.
Deployment is more than the driving model
For mobility and ML teams, the partnership illustrates the operational layer around autonomous systems. Commercial deployment requires vehicles, fleet operations, maintenance, marketplace integration, safety processes, and regulatory execution in addition to autonomy software.
Uber's strategy is therefore both cooperative and diversified: keep Waymo service running in two markets while building relationships with other developers. The retrieved evidence supports that current posture; it does not establish which partner or operating model will dominate future robotaxi volume.
Key Points
- 1Uber said its Waymo operations remain strong in Austin and Atlanta after the companies ended their Phoenix partnership.
- 2Uber's SEC-filed second-quarter release reported $58.02 billion in gross bookings, up 24% year over year.
- 3The Verge reported that Uber has described upward of $10 billion in robotaxi spending over time, while Uber continues to diversify autonomous-vehicle partners.
Scoring Rationale
Uber's Waymo relationship and multi-partner robotaxi strategy matter for autonomous-mobility commercialization, while the official results show the financial scale supporting that effort. The sources do not establish near-term robotaxi profitability or market leadership.
Sources
Primary source and supporting public references used for this report.
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