---
title: "Uber turns on Waymo as it pours $10B+ into owning robotaxi alternatives"
type: "News"
locale: "en"
url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/286581421.md"
description: "Uber is investing over $10 billion to develop its own autonomous vehicle fleet while publicly criticizing its partner Waymo's technology. Executives have labeled Waymo's approach as 'less scalable' and 'less reliable' compared to Uber's hybrid model. Despite these criticisms, Waymo vehicles continue to operate on Uber's platform in select cities."
datetime: "2026-05-15T14:20:43.000Z"
locales:
  - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/286581421.md)
  - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/286581421.md)
  - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/286581421.md)
---

# Uber turns on Waymo as it pours $10B+ into owning robotaxi alternatives

Uber is publicly trashing its robotaxi partner Waymo while simultaneously investing more than $10 billion to build its own autonomous vehicle fleet with Rivian, Lucid, and Nuro.

The ride-hailing giant’s executives have spent the last few months taking direct shots at Waymo’s technology and deployment strategy — even as Waymo vehicles still operate on Uber’s platform in Austin and Atlanta.

## Uber execs go after Waymo

According to a new Business Insider report, Uber executives have been painting AV-only operators like Alphabet’s Waymo as “less scalable” and “less reliable” than Uber’s hybrid approach, which mixes human drivers with robotaxis on a single ride-hailing platform.

The attacks haven’t been subtle. Uber CTO Praveen Neppalli shared a video on X in April showing what he described as a “scary” encounter with a Waymo vehicle in San Francisco. The Waymo appeared to overtake a Muni bus in the wrong lane, squeezing between the bus and Neppalli’s car. He wrote: “Big fan of AVs, but perception ≠ judgment. Edge cases matter!”

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