B2 Reading: Waymo vs Uber, the Ultimate Frenemies
Read the article about Waymo and Uber and fill in the gaps.
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disrupt
essential
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bitter
transform
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settled
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uneasy
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alliance
Few business relationships are as complicated as the one between Waymo and Uber. Over the past decade, the two companies have been rivals, opponents in court, business partners and, once again, competitors, all in the race to build the future of transport: the driverless taxi.
Their stories began in the same year. In 2009, Uber launched the app that would the taxi industry around the world, while Google quietly started a self-driving car project that later became Waymo. Both soon realised that whoever perfected autonomous driving could ride-hailing, since the driver is the biggest cost of every taxi journey.
The rivalry turned ugly in 2017. Waymo sued Uber, it of using trade secrets taken by Anthony Levandowski, a star engineer who had downloaded thousands of confidential files before leaving Google and starting a self-driving truck company that Uber then bought. The case was in 2018, with Uber handing Waymo shares worth around $245 million. Levandowski later pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets, although he was pardoned in 2021. Uber eventually sold its own self-driving unit in 2020.
Then came an unexpected . From 2023, Waymo's robotaxis were available on the Uber app in Phoenix, and later only through Uber in Austin and Atlanta. For a while, the old enemies seemed to have found a way to work together: Waymo had the cars, and Uber had the customers.
That arrangement now looks . Waymo has grown at extraordinary speed, reaching around 500,000 paid rides a week in early 2026, raising $16 billion at a valuation of $126 billion and launching in new cities almost every month. It has ended its partnership with Uber in Phoenix and told Uber it plans to launch its own app in Austin and Atlanta from 2028. Uber, meanwhile, has committed more than $10 billion to robotaxi partnerships with other developers and is preparing to Waymo head-on in San Francisco and London. The tension has become public: an Uber executive described the behaviour of a Waymo vehicle as "scary", and the two companies have taken opposite sides over a proposal in Washington DC to relax robotaxi rules.
At the heart of the conflict is a basic question: in a world of driverless cars, who will own the customer? Waymo is betting that riders will download its app; Uber is betting that its huge of users will make it to every robotaxi company. Behind it all lies a more uncomfortable issue: the future of the millions of human drivers whose jobs robotaxis are designed to .
For now, the two companies remain partners in some places and competitors in others. The question is how long that relationship can last.
Their stories began in the same year. In 2009, Uber launched the app that would the taxi industry around the world, while Google quietly started a self-driving car project that later became Waymo. Both soon realised that whoever perfected autonomous driving could ride-hailing, since the driver is the biggest cost of every taxi journey.
The rivalry turned ugly in 2017. Waymo sued Uber, it of using trade secrets taken by Anthony Levandowski, a star engineer who had downloaded thousands of confidential files before leaving Google and starting a self-driving truck company that Uber then bought. The case was in 2018, with Uber handing Waymo shares worth around $245 million. Levandowski later pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets, although he was pardoned in 2021. Uber eventually sold its own self-driving unit in 2020.
Then came an unexpected . From 2023, Waymo's robotaxis were available on the Uber app in Phoenix, and later only through Uber in Austin and Atlanta. For a while, the old enemies seemed to have found a way to work together: Waymo had the cars, and Uber had the customers.
That arrangement now looks . Waymo has grown at extraordinary speed, reaching around 500,000 paid rides a week in early 2026, raising $16 billion at a valuation of $126 billion and launching in new cities almost every month. It has ended its partnership with Uber in Phoenix and told Uber it plans to launch its own app in Austin and Atlanta from 2028. Uber, meanwhile, has committed more than $10 billion to robotaxi partnerships with other developers and is preparing to Waymo head-on in San Francisco and London. The tension has become public: an Uber executive described the behaviour of a Waymo vehicle as "scary", and the two companies have taken opposite sides over a proposal in Washington DC to relax robotaxi rules.
At the heart of the conflict is a basic question: in a world of driverless cars, who will own the customer? Waymo is betting that riders will download its app; Uber is betting that its huge of users will make it to every robotaxi company. Behind it all lies a more uncomfortable issue: the future of the millions of human drivers whose jobs robotaxis are designed to .
For now, the two companies remain partners in some places and competitors in others. The question is how long that relationship can last.