Squishmallows, dentures, and an ‘I Heart Hot Dads’ bag: Uber has found thousands of items left in robotaxis
Uber says robotaxi riders have already left thousands of items behind, and can recover them through the app or by pickup at a depot.
Intelligence analysis by GPT-5.4 Mini
Uber's lost-and-found report now includes robotaxis, showing that driverless rides create the same everyday mess as human ones. The company is turning item recovery into part of its AV support network.
Uber's robot cars are acting like regular cars: people forget phones, bags, and even dentures inside them. Uber is building a lost-and-found system so the cars can still help return things, like a mailroom for rides.
Analysis
A familiar problem in a new fleet
Uber's annual Lost & Found Index has long been a quirky look at what riders forget in cars, from phones and wallets to stranger items like live fish and a package of butterflies. This year, the company used the report to show that robotaxis have inherited the same problem: in the past year, riders left behind thousands of items in robotaxis on Uber's network.
The list includes the expected basics, such as phones, keys, wallets, passports, and headphones. It also includes more unusual objects like a set of dentures, an “I Heart Hot Dads” bag, a blue hat reading “Emotional Support Human,” a 15-pound yo-yo, a large black marble duck, a Squishmallow, and a Charli XCX poster.
Uber says the recover process is mostly the same as in a regular ride. Riders open the app, go to the activity tab, pick the trip, and contact support. If the item is found, they can either pay $15 for same-day local delivery through Uber Courier or pick it up in person at an AV depot where the vehicles are stored and serviced.
The article frames this as more than a curiosity. Uber has spent years building partnerships with autonomous vehicle companies, but its robotaxi business started to gain commercial momentum only after the March 2025 launch of Waymo on Uber in Austin. Uber and Waymo later expanded to Atlanta, and Uber has also added Motional in Las Vegas and Avride in Dallas, though those services still use human safety operators.
Uber says its broader plan is to make autonomous rides a major business line. The company has created Uber Autonomous Solutions to package software and support services for robotaxi, self-driving truck, and delivery robot operations, and it plans to offer robotaxi rides in as many as 15 cities globally by the end of the year.
Key points
- Uber says thousands of items were left behind in robotaxis over the past year.
- The missing items ranged from everyday belongings to odd finds like dentures and a Squishmallow.
- Riders recover items through Uber's app, support agents, courier delivery, or pickup at an AV depot.
- Uber is positioning lost-item support as part of its broader autonomous vehicle business.
- The company wants robotaxi rides in as many as 15 cities globally by the end of 2026.
If Uber's support system works well, robotaxi riders may feel the same convenience they expect from normal Uber trips. That could make driverless rides easier to trust and help Uber package autonomy as a complete service, not just a vehicle on the road.
A bigger robotaxi network also means more lost items to track, which could create support friction as the service scales. If recovery is slow or inconvenient, the lost-and-found problem could become one more sign that autonomous rides still need a lot of human-style service behind them.
