Over the past 10 years, Uber’s annual Lost and Found Index has provided a rather odd anthropological snapshot of its drivers, and even a few insights into society. The annual catalog of millions of forgotten items ranges from common modern gadgets like smartphones and laptops to more eyebrow-raising objects like a live fish, an ankle monitor, a sled, a pack of live butterflies and a single Louboutin shoe.
This year, Uber is using the report to highlight the same old lost item problem with a new twist: robotaxis. Over the past year, thousands of products on Uber’s ride network (which are somewhat new to millions of people) have been left behind in robotaxis, the company said Tuesday. Phones, keys, wallets, passports and headphones were all suspicious, along with a few items that fit into the who’s who of this rider: a set of prosthetics, an “I Heart Hot Dads” bag and a blue hat that says “Emotional Support Person.”
There is a small business opportunity outside of this fun list. Even in the future of robot taxis, someone still has to return items left behind by passengers.
Uber has partnered with dozens of autonomous vehicle (AV) technology companies over the past few years. But it wasn’t until March 2025, when the Waymo on Uber robotaxi service launched in Austin, that the commercial wheels in its AV business began to turn. Since then, Uber and Waymo have also launched robotaxi service in Atlanta. Uber added other AV companies to its app last year, including Motional in Las Vegas and Avride in Dallas, though they still have human safety operators at the helm.
Uber’s logging of thousands of lost items in just 12 months gives some idea of how many robotaxi rides are completed on its app. The key message here is that Uber’s existing network is already set up to reunite riders with their lost belongings, including a 15-pound yo-yo, a giant black marble duck, a Squishmallow and a Charli XCX poster.
When an Uber driver forgets their belongings in the robot taxi, the recovery process is similar to any other Uber ride: open the app, click on the activity tab, select the trip where the item was lost, and contact customer support. Drivers can then text, chat or call a support agent. If the item is located, they have two options: pay an Uber Courier driver $15 to ensure local same-day delivery, or pick up the item in person at an AV depot where cars are stored and serviced.
Uber Courier is a rebrand of Uber Connect that launched in 2020 and allows users to send packages and personal items between local addresses. But Uber says there’s more to the robotaxi support network than repurposing existing services.
“With tens of millions of lost items reported to Uber each year, we’ve spent the last decade building systems that help drivers reunite with their belongings quickly and seamlessly,” said Amy Satrom, Uber’s global head of autonomous support. “As autonomous rides at Uber continue to expand, we’re bringing the same experience to AVs – combining our fleet operations, support teams and hybrid network to make it easy to recover a lost item, even when there’s no driver behind the wheel.”
The company announced in February Uber Autonomous Solutionsa new business unit that delivers on its larger ambitions around driverless technology. The division provides companies with a suite of services that handle all tasks related to a robotaxi, self-driving truck or curbside delivery robot business, including software and support services.
And Uber clearly means to make AVs a key revenue driver. The company plans to offer robotaxi rides through its app in about 15 cities globally by the end of the year, and has said it aims to be the world’s largest AV travel assistant by 2029.
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