A major change is quietly taking place on the roads of America. Not with drivers but without them. Self-driving taxis, also called robotaxis, are finally here. And two giants are leading the charge: Waymo and Tesla.

Tesla started a dick measuring contest with Waymo, and it is losing. The Alphabet company is expanding its service

That makes Uber a logical partner for autonomous vehicle (AV) companies. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi sees robotaxis as at $1 trillion opportunity in the U.S. alone, and he recently told analysts, "Uber can deliver the lowest operational costs for our AV partners because we are leaps and bounds ahead on every aspect of the go-to-market capabilities."

Waymo more than doubled its robotaxi service area in Austin just days after Tesla showed off a phallic-shaped service area expansion in the city.

Driverless rideshare service Waymo, owned by Google parent Alphabet, deployed its fleet to New York City this week to begin mapping out the city roads – with humans still sitting behind the wheel while they await a change in state law to allow fully driverless riding.

President Trump’s nominee to run the country’s top auto safety agency may bring more scrutiny to technologies like autonomous driving and robotaxis, putting pressure on companies like Tesla. This comes in contrast to expectations that the administration would ease federal autonomous regulations.

Bedrock Robotics, led by a veteran of Alphabet Inc.’s autonomous tech unit, is emerging from stealth with $80 million and plans to make heavy construction equipment work around-the-clock.