Uber takes aim at Tesla with its newest plan

If you’ve had the opportunity to take a robotaxi ride in the last few years since Waymo started offering the service through Uber, you already know that it’s a bit of a surreal experience to get into a car with no driver. 

That said, it’s a smart way to introduce those seeking rides to the service. Waymo started offering robotaxi rides by way of Uber after announcing a partnership in 2022, and ever since, customers have been able to call a robotaxi if they happen to be in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, or Phoenix (and Atlanta is next on the list).

💸💰 Don’t miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet’s free daily newsletter 💰💸

If you’ve never taken one, it goes a bit like you might expect: you call your car, and when it shows up, there’s no one behind the wheel.

I took one of these rides on my last visit to Los Angeles, and while it was surreal to watch the car making decisions in real time instead of a human, I got safely to my destination in 10 minutes. While the car was not forced to navigate severe traffic or anything highly challenging, I must admit I felt perfectly safe the whole trip.

Related: Toyota takes aim at Elon Musk’s Tesla

Now Uber has announced a new partnership with another autonomous driving company, and it ought to heat up the robotaxi wars — not to mention put some pressure on Waymo and, of course, longtime robotaxi believer Elon Musk.

Uber’s new partnership with WeRide

Uber has announced a new development in its alliance with Chinese autonomous vehicle company WeRide, saying it will expand to 15 cities over the next five years, including some in Europe as well as the United States.

It comes five months after Uber’s first collaborative effort with WeRide, where the two companies launched a robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi. This was Uber’s first international offering.

While the Abu Dhabi partnership was described as “small-scale” by Uber when it first launched, it’s obviously been enough of a success that both parties have decided it’s time to expand the vision. Dubai is also next on its list, proving that the service has continued to gain traction in the United Arab Emirates.

Related: Waymo’s ambitious robotaxi plan is a shot across Tesla’s bow

Although the whole robotaxi revolution was originally boomed about by Elon Musk, who for many years has made big promises to Tesla owners about their cars driving themselves, it’s now heating up with lots of outside competition, and Uber is one of the companies making the most aggressive moves.

It now has more than 15 partnerships that utilize autonomous vehicles in several ways, including delivery and trucking as well as ride-hailing. A few of the companies it’s made deals with in addition to Waymo and WeRide include Momenta, May Mobility Volkswagen, and Ann Arbor.

Uber also revealed another partnership with Pony.ai as of May 6, which will first launch in a key market in the Middle East later this year. The press release says the partnership’s goal is “scaling deployments to additional international markets in the future.”

Elon Musk is late to his own game

While Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been talking big about autonomous vehicles for a long time, he’s had some struggles getting his ambitions to take flight.

The high incidence of accidents in Tesla’s Full-Self Driving (FSD) vehicles resulted in an investigation by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), launched in October 2024. The investigation was opened after a Tesla vehicle using FSD struck and fatally injured a pedestrian.

Musk has promised a launch of unsupervised full self-driving as a paid service in Austin this June. But with so many other players entering the space, one might wonder if customer interest will be as high as it was even five years ago — especially since people have been eager to get rid of their Teslas as of late.

Related: Ford makes a drastic decision in the face of tariff overhang

#Uber #takes #aim #Tesla #newest #plan