Waymo and Uber quietly part ways in Phoenix
Waymo and Uber quietly part ways in Phoenix
Waymo 与 Uber 低调结束在凤凰城的合作
Waymo robotaxis are no longer available on Uber’s ride-hail app in Phoenix, Arizona, ending a nearly three-year partnership in the city, both companies confirmed to TechCrunch on Monday. Uber said it is readying the launch of a separate autonomous vehicle partnership in the city, but did not name the partner. Waymo 自动驾驶出租车已不再出现在亚利桑那州凤凰城的 Uber 打车应用中，两家公司周一向 TechCrunch 证实，双方在该市近三年的合作关系已宣告结束。Uber 表示，正准备在该市启动另一项自动驾驶汽车合作计划，但未透露合作伙伴的名称。
Waymo told TechCrunch that the vehicles Uber used for this “pilot” program have already been integrated into its own Phoenix fleet, available through its app. Waymo users started noticing that the company’s vehicles were absent from Uber’s network in recent days. Waymo’s vehicles are still available on Uber in Austin and Atlanta, for instance. Waymo 向 TechCrunch 表示，Uber 在此“试点”项目中使用的车辆已被整合进其凤凰城的自有车队，用户可通过 Waymo 自己的应用进行预约。Waymo 用户近日开始注意到，该公司的车辆已从 Uber 的网络中消失。不过，Waymo 的车辆在奥斯汀和亚特兰大等地仍可通过 Uber 使用。
Uber told TechCrunch the two companies decided to end the deployment in Phoenix as it was the contracted end date. The quiet end to this partnership in Phoenix, which Waymo said happened in May, comes as the Alphabet-owned company is starting to put its newest robotaxis — the Zeekr-made van it calls Ojai — on the road. Uber 向 TechCrunch 表示，两家公司决定结束在凤凰城的部署，因为这已达到合同约定的截止日期。Waymo 称，这一合作关系于今年 5 月在凤凰城低调结束。与此同时，这家 Alphabet 旗下的公司正开始将其最新的自动驾驶出租车——即由极氪（Zeekr）制造、代号为“Ojai”的厢式车——投入运营。
It’s also happening as the Uber-Waymo relationship appears to be wearing in some places, with the two companies poised to directly compete against each other in London as early as this year. Still, both companies praised the collaboration in Phoenix as a successful jumping-off point for their respective robotaxi plans, which have gotten increasingly ambitious since 2023. 与此同时，Uber 与 Waymo 的关系在某些方面似乎也出现了裂痕，两家公司最早可能于今年在伦敦展开直接竞争。尽管如此，双方仍称赞在凤凰城的合作是各自自动驾驶出租车计划的成功起点，这些计划自 2023 年以来已变得愈发宏大。
“This was a productive pilot that paved the way for future expansions and partnerships across the globe. After hundreds of thousands of trips with Uber, we have integrated these vehicles back into our Phoenix fleet, where they will continue to serve riders through Waymo, including our public transit integration with Via, and delivery with DoorDash,” Waymo told TechCrunch. “We’re grateful to all of the Uber customers who took fully autonomous trips with us, and we look forward to continuing to serve the Phoenix community.” “这是一个富有成效的试点项目，为全球未来的扩张和合作铺平了道路。在与 Uber 完成数十万次行程后，我们已将这些车辆整合回我们的凤凰城车队，它们将继续通过 Waymo 服务乘客，包括我们与 Via 的公共交通整合项目以及与 DoorDash 的配送服务，”Waymo 对 TechCrunch 表示。“我们感谢所有通过 Uber 体验过我们全自动驾驶行程的客户，并期待继续为凤凰城社区提供服务。”
“Phoenix was our first pilot market with Waymo and was an intentionally limited deployment, reaching just over a dozen vehicles dedicated to the program. We learned a lot from that collaboration, which helped us to quickly scale Austin and Atlanta, where hundreds of Waymo AVs are available exclusively on Uber and our coverage area continues to expand,” Uber said. “凤凰城是我们与 Waymo 的第一个试点市场，也是一个刻意限制规模的部署，该项目仅投入了十几辆车。我们从这次合作中学到了很多，这帮助我们迅速扩大了奥斯汀和亚特兰大的业务规模，目前在这两个城市，数百辆 Waymo 自动驾驶汽车仅在 Uber 平台上提供服务，且我们的覆盖范围还在不断扩大，”Uber 表示。
The robotaxi landscape looks much different than it did when these two companies kicked off this collaboration in 2023. Back when it was first announced, the idea of Uber and Waymo partnering up still seemed unlikely given their messy legal battle that ended in a settlement in 2018. Robotaxis as a technology were in a far more uncertain place, as no operator had reached scale yet. Cruise was still seen as a viable competitor, as it had not yet gone through its own scandal and been absorbed into General Motors. 如今的自动驾驶出租车市场与 2023 年两家公司开启合作时已大不相同。在最初宣布合作时，考虑到双方在 2018 年以和解告终的混乱法律纠纷，Uber 与 Waymo 联手的想法似乎不太可能实现。当时，自动驾驶出租车技术处于更加不确定的阶段，还没有运营商实现规模化。Cruise 当时仍被视为强有力的竞争对手，因为它尚未经历后来的丑闻并被通用汽车完全吸收。
In the three years since, Waymo has grown its fleet to around 4,000 vehicles, and Uber has inked deals to add dozens of autonomous vehicle partners to its network. This Phoenix partnership remained an unusual one, as it was the only city where Waymo operated directly and through Uber. Waymo is in the process of launching in around 20 new cities this year, is operating in 11 major U.S. metro areas, and the company offers more than 500,000 trips every week. 在此后的三年里，Waymo 的车队规模已增长至约 4,000 辆，而 Uber 也已签署协议，将其网络中的自动驾驶合作伙伴增加到了数十家。凤凰城的合作关系一直很特殊，因为这是唯一一个 Waymo 既直接运营又通过 Uber 运营的城市。Waymo 今年正计划进入约 20 个新城市，目前已在 11 个美国主要大都市区开展业务，每周提供超过 50 万次行程。