Today’s the day: Waymo’s unlikely partnership with Uber is now live in Austin, Texas. The former rivals have joined forces in the hopes of accelerating the transition to autonomous vehicles, and as of today, any Austin resident with a desire to take a trip in a fully driverless robotaxi can open their Uber app and hail away.

But, of course, there are some limitations.

Waymo only operates within a 37-square-mile area in Austin, which includes Hyde Park, Downtown, Montopolis, and other “popular destinations,” according to the company. So the trip will need to originate and end within that service area in order to qualify for Waymo. It also doesn’t operate on highways yet, so the route will only comprise local streets.

Another thing to consider: simply calling an Uber in Waymo’s geofence doesn’t guarantee a robotaxi will show up. Waymo spokesperson Chris Bonelli declined to share the size of the company’s fleet in Austin but acknowledged that it was small at launch.

“While smaller to start, the fleet will grow to hundreds of vehicles over time,” Bonelli said.

As of August 2024, Waymo’s fleet had about 700 vehicles, most of which are in operation in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. The company has thousands of Jaguar I-Pace vehicles stored at a warehouse in Phoenix, according to drone footage of the facility. And Waymo has deals with Hyundai and Zeekr to add new vehicles to its fleet over time.

For Austin residents who really have their hearts set on riding in a Waymo vehicle, there are a number of things they can do to indicate their interest. In the Uber app settings under “Ride Preferences,” customers can opt in to autonomous rides to increase their chances of being paired with a driverless vehicle.

Waymo has been eyeing Austin as its next robotaxi market since at least August 2023. The company began offering rides to “Early Testers” (people who join a waitlist and sign nondisclosure agreements to get early access to the company’s robotaxis) in October 2024.

For those keeping score, there were approximately 550 days between identifying Austin as a future robotaxi city and launching the service on the Uber app. Waymo’s success depends partly on narrowing that window for future cities in order to prove its scalability, while keeping an eye on safety.

At launch, Waymo’s vehicles will be available exclusively on Uber’s app in Austin. The two companies first announced a deal to put Waymo’s robotaxis on Uber’s app back in 2023, indicating that Austin would be first, followed by Atlanta. Waymo’s own ridehail app, Waymo One, will not be operational in Austin. Customers who open Waymo One will be redirected to Uber’s app.

That means certain functions that were controlled in the Waymo One app in other cities will now be controlled through the Uber app. These include unlocking the vehicle, popping the trunk, and starting the trip. Customers can also access 24/7 customer support through the app or via a button in the Waymo vehicle.

In another first, Uber will manage fleet services, including vehicle cleaning, maintenance, inspections, EV charging, and depot operations. The company is contracting with Avmo (formerly Moove Cars) to handle these tasks. Waymo is still responsible for vehicle testing, roadside assistance, and certain elements of rider support. Waymo and Uber will obviously share in the costs and the revenue produced by the robotaxi service, though both companies have declined to share the split.

The launch signals the start of a new era of cooperation between Uber, the rideshare giant that gobbled up the global taxi industry, and upstart Waymo, which is slowly trying to chip away at that dominance.

“Starting today, Austin riders can be matched with a Waymo autonomous vehicle on the Uber app, making their next trip even more special,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber. “With Waymo’s technology and Uber’s proven platform, we’re excited to introduce our customers to a future of transportation that is increasingly electric and autonomous.”

It’s important to remember that Uber and Waymo weren’t always so chummy.

In 2017, Waymo sued Uber and its subsidiary, self-driving truck startup Otto, over allegations of trade secret theft and patent infringement. The case went to trial almost a year later but ended abruptly when the two sides reached a surprise settlement. Uber later admitted that it misappropriated some of Waymo’s tech and vowed to license it for future use. Anthony Levandowski, a former Google engineer and the founder of Otto, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing Waymo’s trade secrets but was later pardoned by President Donald Trump.

Infamously, Uber was developing its own fleet of autonomous vehicles with the intention to eventually replace all of its human drivers, but the program was shut down after a woman was killed by one of the company’s vehicles in Arizona in 2018. A federal investigation later found Uber to be partly responsible for the incident. Uber sold its robotaxi business to Aurora, which incorporated the work into its development of autonomous trucks.

But as Waymo eyes more markets, most experts agree that the business will take a long time to grow. Uber estimates that the autonomous vehicle market in the US alone is a trillion-dollar opportunity, but Khosrowshahi said during a recent earnings call that it will take “many, many years” to build out and scale.