Uber Eats has started using Waymo’s autonomous vehicles to provide driverless delivery services

Waymo, a driverless car company, has teamed up with Uber Eats to introduce a driverless meal delivery service in select neighborhoods in Phoenix, including Chandler, Mesa, and Tempe.

Customers ordering from approximately five participating restaurants through the Uber Eats app may receive a notification that their order could be delivered by an autonomous vehicle. While users can choose to opt out, those who are interested can use their phones to unlock the vehicle’s trunk and retrieve their meal once the driverless car arrives.

This autonomous vehicle option will not incur an additional cost for customers, and it may even be more economical than the standard delivery option, as there is no need to tip the driverless vehicles. Waymo, a subsidiary of Google, has been operating autonomous passenger shuttles in Phoenix since 2017 and has expanded its driverless fleets to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin. However, the partnership with Uber marks Waymo’s first venture into the meal delivery sector.

Uber has been offering driverless deliveries in partnership with other autonomous car companies for the past two years. With the addition of Waymo, Uber Eats now provides autonomous vehicle deliveries in seven cities, including Mountain View, West Hollywood, Santa Monica, Miami, Fairfax, Phoenix, and Tokyo. While both Uber and Waymo aim to expand the service to more cities, they have not specified a timeline for when or if the service will be available in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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