Waymo has partnered with Uber in a number of cities to more quickly and widely get people using its vehicles. But the partnership has ended in Phoenix. Phoenix is where Waymo first launched its robotaxi service. So, it was a bit of an odd partnership there, but the company indicates it was all about learning, and while the partnership isn’t continuing in Phoenix, it is elsewhere. “Phoenix was our first pilot market with Waymo and was an intentionally limited deployment, reaching just over a dozen vehicles dedicated to the program,” Uber said in a statement. “We learned a lot from that collaboration, which helped us to quickly scale Austin and Atlanta, where hundreds of Waymo AVs are available exclusively on Uber and our coverage area continues to expand.” As indicated in that statement, there are cities where Uber is the only way you can get a Waymo (in Austin and Atlanta, specifically). So, naturally, that’s not ending anytime soon. Waymo added that it “was a productive pilot that paved the way for future expansions and partnerships across the globe.” Interestingly, the Waymo vehicles that were used in the Uber pilot will now be used for DoorDash deliveries in Phoenix. Teenagers Doing Dumb Things in Robotaxis A bit further west, apparently, teenagers have been spotted doing really dumb things in Waymo robotaxis. We all knew the lack of a driver would lead to some bad ideas, but just how bad? Well … “a posse of teens who were recently spotted hanging out the windows of a Waymo cab as it weaved through Santa Monica traffic, as if about to perform their own version of a Buster Keaton stunt,” Futurism reports. “Photos show at least two boys with most of their bodies poked out the windows — taking selfies for the ‘Gram, naturally.” Ugh. Oh, and they weren’t only teens! “What was shocking was how young they were, especially the boy sitting in the very front, who appeared to be maybe 8 to 9 years old,” onlooker Rojia Shahsavani told KTLA. What?!?! “Shahsavani says she told the teens to stop, but they didn’t listen. Concerned for their safety, she tailed the robotaxi and called Waymo customer service to narc on the little troublemakers.” One would think and hope Waymo would have systems in place to notice and handle this kind of thing. Also, under California laws, children who are under 18 years of age have to be accompanied by an adult. So … someone was apparently breaking the law as well as common sense. “I think the two real issues that shine through with this case are age verification for riders, which is something Waymo can be fined for, and having enough monitors to actually notice and care if there’s this type of unsafe activity going on in the cars,” a Consumer Watchdog spokesperson told KTLA. Indeed. And Waymo does agree. “Safety is our highest priority at Waymo,” a spokesperson told Los Angeles Times. “This behavior violates our user agreement, and while these sorts of events are rare, we take them extremely seriously and remain committed to improving road safety and mobility in the cities where we operate.” Let’s hope we don’t see more such reports, or worse.