Waymo Revs Into High Gear While Uber and Lyft Hit Speed Bumps in Robotaxi Race

Silicon Valley’s autonomous vehicle darling is raising the stakes. Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana says the company will surpass 1M weekly paid robotaxi rides by the end of 2026, calling it an industry inflection point. The AlphabetGOOGL

subsidiary’s push comes as traditional rideshare firms struggle, with UberUBER

down 15.5% this year and LyftLYFT

off 33%, highlighting Lyft’s heavier reliance on pure ridesharing versus Uber’s more diversified model.

• Waymo’s scale has reached about 400K paid rides weekly across six US cities after quadrupling trip volume in 2025, which co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana calls an inflection point.
• Uber’s stance is defensive but strategic, with CEO Dara Khosrowshahi framing autonomous vehicles as growth drivers and Uber as the indispensable demand layer for AV partners.

The perfect execution: Uber is betting autonomy works best inside a mixed system, pairing robotaxis with human drivers rather than going all-in on standalone AV fleets. The hybrid model has delivered higher vehicle utilization and faster pickup times in early markets, reinforcing Uber’s push to partner broadly across the AV ecosystem. With deals covering more than 45K robotaxis and partnerships spanning 20+ suppliers, Uber’s diversified approach may prove more resilient as Waymo faces renewed safety scrutiny.