Second city in Texas to get them.
Startup May Mobility plans to deploy its autonomous vehicles on the Uber platform by the end of 2025, starting in Arlington, Texas, as part of a multi-year partnership.
The tie-up with Uber offers May Mobility a chance to grow beyond offering shuttles within campuses and planned communities, while Uber adds May Mobility to its growing roster of autonomous vehicle collaborators as it works to integrate self-driving tech onto its platform.
For example, Uber has already begun offering Waymo robotaxis on its app in Phoenix and Austin, and plans to launch in Atlanta this summer. That will put it in competition with Lyft and May Mobility, which recently announced a similar partnership to launch autonomous ride-hail in Atlanta this year.
As with Uber’s other AV partnerships, customers in Arlington will have the option to choose a May Mobility vehicle — one of the startup’s hybrid Toyota Sienna Autono-MaaS vehicles fitted out with its self-driving tech — when they book a ride.
The first deployment in Arlington will involve human safety operators behind the wheel before transitioning to driverless. Following initial launch, Uber and May Mobility intend to expand to other U.S. markets in 2026 and “deploy thousands of AVs” over “the next few years,” according to May Mobility.
Austin already had driverless Ubers via Waymo. Lyft is supposed to unleash May Mobility-powered robotaxis sometime this year in Austin as well. I presume Arlington is the second such destination for these things in part because of the 2026 World Cup, which will take place in part at Jerryworld. They’ll need all the mobility they can get.
The Verge adds a few details.
May Mobility currently owns a fleet of autonomous Toyota Sienna minivans, retrofitted with the company’s autonomous hardware and software. The company operates rideshare services in geofenced, easily mapped business districts, college campuses, and closed residential communities, such as Sun City, a retirement community outside of Phoenix.
The deal with Uber is not exclusive to either company. May Mobility also has a partnership with Lyft to deploy autonomous vehicles on its ridehail platform, which launches in Atlanta later this year. Likewise, Uber has been on a streak of striking deals with AV operators as it seeks to become a one-stop shop for robotaxis and autonomous delivery vehicles of all brands. In addition to May Mobility, Uber has partnerships with Waymo, Motional, Avride, WeRide, and Volkswagen for self-driving cars, and Serve, Cartken, and Nuro for delivery robots.
May Mobility has set itself apart by focusing on transportation contracts with businesses and local governments. And while some robotaxis have clashed with cities, May Mobility says its incentivized to address municipal concerns or risk having its contract terminated. The company also recently added to its fleet electric minibuses that can carry up to 30 passengers, which is hopes to launch next year.
I am very curious to know how many people have chosen the robotaxi over the human-driven one in the cities where the robos are on offer. I don’t use these things often, almost always when I’m travelling, but for now I think I’d stick with the analog system. At least until more of the bugs are worked out. What would your preference be? Are you impatient for these things to come to Houston (RIP, Cruise) or are you more than happy to let other cities be the beta testers? Reuters and the DMN have more.
Arlington, Texas, population ~400,00, the largest city in the US without public transportation.
Austin here: both Waymo and before them the Google Cruise things used my neighborhood for testing. I wasn’t consulted.
I will never, ever, ride in one. For the same reason I will never use Uber/Left. Not because of distrust of technology (though Terminator would like a word), but because these companies are anti-regulation and anti-labor. Taxis still exist, so I use those. Plus, the very existence of robot cars makes traffic worse for actual human drivers. Feh.