Uber spent more than a decade building a business around the idea that people should stop driving themselves. Its latest feature is designed for everyone who hasn’t taken that advice.
Uber Parking, now live in select U.S. markets, lets drivers find, reserve, and pay for parking directly inside the Uber app. Users tap a Parking icon, browse an interactive map of nearby facilities, see upfront prices, and filter results by garage, outdoor lot, or valet.
Before booking, they enter vehicle information and a license plate number. Entry at the facility then works via QR code or automatic license-plate recognition, depending on the operator.
Reservations can be extended through the app. Cancellations carry no charge as long as the booking has not yet started.
The feature is initially available in 15 U.S. cities: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York City, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Uber plans to expand toward the broader footprint it gained through SpotHero, which spans more than 400 cities.
SpotHero launched in 2011 and built a network of more than 13,000 garages, lots, and valet facilities across the United States and Canada. Uber acquired the company and plans to keep the SpotHero app running separately while integrating its inventory into the Uber platform.
Uber One subscribers receive 10 percent back on parking reservations as account credits, redeemable toward rides or Uber Eats orders. Uber’s internal brief states the subscription program had more than 55 million members across 47 countries in late 2026, though that figure was not independently verified in available sources.
The strategic logic operates on two timelines. The immediate one is keeping Uber inside a commuter’s trip even when no Uber driver is involved. That parking touchpoint then creates additional opportunities to reinforce subscriptions, ride bookings, and food delivery.
The longer-term possibility involves autonomous vehicles. Parking facilities could eventually serve as staging, charging, and maintenance hubs for robotaxi fleets, reducing deadheading (the empty miles an autonomous vehicle travels while repositioning for the next trip). That remains a future possibility, not a current operational reality.
Uber’s autonomous pipeline is active but still early-stage. Uber and NVIDIA have announced plans for Level 4 robotaxis to begin planned deployment in Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2027, with expansion to 28 cities globally by 2028. Uber and Rivian have announced an initial phase of up to 10,000 autonomous R2 vehicles. Commercial service is targeted for San Francisco and Miami in 2028, with potential expansion to 25 cities by 2031, subject to milestones. Separately, Uber, Wayve, and Nissan have announced a Tokyo robotaxi pilot using Nissan Leaf vehicles with Wayve’s autonomous-driving technology. Safety operators will be present during an initial phase, and the pilot remains subject to regulatory approval.
All of those partnerships are announced plans rather than completed service launches. Uber Parking’s present reality is narrower and more immediate: a reservation tool for drivers who need somewhere to put a vehicle, helping them save hundreds in the process. The driverless Tesla robotaxi era and similar autonomous infrastructure ambitions are real, but they are background context for now, not the product on offer today.
