Uber Partners With May Mobility & Momenta As VW, GM, Ford, Chevrolet, Polestar Face Recalls

The ever-growing and rapidly advancing autonomous mobility industry just saw its latest boost, courtesy of two announcements from Uber, the American multinational ride-hailing company.

On May 1, 2025, Uber and May Mobility, a leading autonomous vehicle (AV) technology company, revealed a new multi-year strategic partnership that would see May Mobility deploy thousands of AVs on the Uber platform over the next few years.

Uber will offer its customers the option of May Mobility’s AVs on its platform on qualifying trips, across a fleet of American-made, hybrid-electric Toyota Sienna Autono-MaaS vehicles equipped with May’s patented Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) technology.

The platform applies real-time, human-like reasoning to handle unexpected situations with AI-powered speed and precision and has “proven itself” in the U.S. and Japan, including driverless operations in three cities, according to the company.

“Launching on the Uber platform is a big signal to the market that May Mobility is ready to quickly expand to major markets as the pre-eminent autonomy-as-a-service provider,” said Edwin Olson, CEO and co-founder of May Mobility. 

May Mobility’s initial AVs are expected to hit the roads by the end of 2025 and will be deployed with onboard safety operators before becoming driverless, beginning with Arlington, Texas (where May has operated since 2021) and moving to other markets in the U.S. in 2026.


“We are thrilled to be partnering with May Mobility to continue to scale the availability of autonomous vehicles across the United States,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber.

This refers to the numerous partnerships Uber has in place to deploy robotaxis across the country, including the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) company, BYD, globally renowned Volkswagen, and robotaxi leader Waymo, among others.  

Khosrowshahi added, “At Uber, we’re building the future of transportation, working with the world’s leading autonomous vehicle developers like May Mobility to help commercialize and deploy this technology quickly at scale around the world.”

Yes, Uber is going global with the movement, and that brings up its second announcement.

On May 2, 2025, Uber and Chinese automaker Momenta revealed a strategic agreement to introduce self-driving vehicles to the Uber platform, in international markets outside of the US and China.

Europe will be the first destination of this deployment. It’s expected to commence at the beginning of 2026 and will include onboard safety operators.

“Having already established strong partnerships with the most innovative compute platform providers, and globally leading OEMs, expanding our network to Uber as the preeminent mobility platform now completes the key ecosystem needed to scale autonomous driving globally,” said Xudong Cao, CEO, Momenta. “This cooperation marks an exciting milestone as we bring our Robotaxi technology, efficiently integrated on a mass-production vehicle platform, to new international markets.”

Momenta’s robotaxi dream launched in 2020 and received its robotaxi business operation permission in 2023. Currently, it holds a 99% positive user rating across over 250,000 trips.


While Uber is soaring, not all automakers are basking in the light of prosperity.

Volkswagen’s American arm, Volkswagen Group of America, created a recall record for all the wrong reasons.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the company’s ID. Buzz electric vans come with a third-row bench seat that’s wide enough to fit three people but offers only two seatbelts. VW’s take? It was designed for two people.

The NHTSA isn’t a fan of this explanation, and as such has issued a safety recall report with changes for VW to expedite to ensure adequate and appropriate safety measures are in place. This means that out of the 5,637 VW ID. Buzz electric vans that were produced, 100% are said to possess this defect.


It’s been a busy couple of weeks for the NHTSA, as it has issued recalls for almost a million vehicles.

This included a recall for around 600,000 General Motors’ vehicles—spanning Chevrolet, Cadillac, and GMC models—for engine issues that could cause damage or total failure. The total number here stood at 597,630, and included 126,027 Cadillacs (Escalade/ESV), 174,208 Chevrolets (Silverado 1500, Suburban, Tahoe), and 297,395 GMC (Sierra 1500, Yukon/XL) cars. These recalls affect vehicles produced from March 01, 2021, to May 31, 2024.

“The connecting rod and/or crankshaft engine components in these vehicles may have manufacturing defects that can lead to engine damage and engine failure,” reads the safety report.

Ahead of this, Ford Motor Company was embroiled in recalls for Ford and Lincoln vehicles, hitting a total of 289,618 affected cars. The problem? Potentially faulty rearview cameras and displays that include a 360-degree view camera that “may not display a rearview image when the vehicle is placed in reverse.”

The affected vehicles span 2015 Ford Expedition, F-250, F-350, Ford F-450, Lincoln MKC, Lincoln Navigator, and 2022 and 2023 Ford Broncos.

27,816 Polestar 2s (2021-2025) were also recalled for possessing possible rearview cameras that didn’t display images when placed in reverse and offered “Camera is temporarily unavailable” messages, owing to a synchronization error between the Parking Assist Camera and the Infotainment Head Unit.

Do you think these recalls will negatively affect the respective automakers? Do you think Uber has taken a lead in the robotaxi ride-hailing sector?

Let us know in the comments below!