Uber Freight and Waymo Via announced a long-term strategic partnership to connect their technologies and deploy autonomous trucks at scale on the Uber Freight network. This partnership brings together the power of Waymo’s autonomous driving technology with the scale of Uber Freight’s network and leading marketplace technology, unlocking a roadmap for the implementation of autonomous trucks on US roads.

This agreement includes a deep product integration and long-term collaboration roadmap that involves building the tools and infrastructure specific to the successful deployment of autonomous trucks for Uber Freight’s shipper and carrier customers.

Carriers that purchase trucks equipped with the Waymo Driver in the future will be able to opt-in to Uber Freight’s marketplace through user-friendly applications that enable them to deploy their autonomous assets on the Uber Freight network.

These applications will provide a streamlined experience for onboarding, load booking and execution, trailer transfers, and payment while also enabling an ecosystem where human drivers and autonomous trucks can collaborate effortlessly in a hybrid network to move freight. Both companies envision a future where autonomous trucks tackle the long-haul portion of driving.

Additionally, the companies will explore what the transfer hub model could look like with Uber Freight's universal trailer pool program, Powerloop, for easy and fast transfers between AV trucks and human drivers, streamlining operations between the first, middle and final mile.

As part of the long-term agreement, Waymo Via intends to reserve billions of miles of its goods-only capacity for the Uber Freight network. For shippers, the scale and depth of this partnership means that Uber Freight, alongside Transplace, will be able to integrate autonomy seamlessly into shipper networks and advise on how best to adjust their supply-chain strategies for a hybrid network future—where autonomously-driven trucks and human-driven trucks operate side by side to move freight more efficiently and safely.

Uber Freight is also uniquely positioned to combine shipments from its $17 billion of Freight Under Management to maximize utilization of autonomous and human-driven trucks, and continuously optimize routes once the technology is deployed, driving savings and improving service and reliability for shippers.

This partnership comes at a time of high fuel costs, a shortage of drivers, and rapidly increasing demand. The future of the industry will rely on a combination of autonomously-driven trucks and human-driven trucks deployed efficiently and at scale across a digital and optimized network.