WAYMO, UBER SET ASIDE PAST RIFT OVER SELF-DRIVING CAR TECHNOLOGY TO TEAM UP ON ROBOTAXIS IN PHOENIX

Self-driving car pioneer Waymo is teaming up with ride-hailing leader Uber in the Phoenix area to transport passengers and deliver food in robotic cars that triggered a bitter technological dispute between the two companies

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The partnership announced this week provides Waymo with another avenue to expand a robotaxi service that it has been running in the Phoenix area since late 2020 while competing to attract passengers from Uber cars that still depend on humans who receive portion of the fares.

Phoenix so far is the only major metropolitan area where a robotaxi operates throughout most of the city, although Waymo and General Motors subsidiary Cruise are vying to run similar autonomous services in San Francisco.

Waymo is making its driverless vehicles available to Uber in Phoenix five years after the two companies spent millions of dollars battling each other in court. The showdown culminated in Uber agreeing to a $245 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit alleging former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick conspired with former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski to steal Waymo’s self-driving car technology.