Uber’s lost items index spotlights robotaxi forgetfulness, phones still rule

Phones remained Uber’s most forgotten item, with more than 1 million reported, even as the company’s latest lost-property ledger started to show the messy edges of driverless rides. Uber said thousands of items were left behind in robotaxis on its ride-hailing network over the past year, a reminder that autonomy has not automated the basic work of handing back a passenger’s belongings.

The 10th annual Lost & Found Index, released June 2, also turned the company’s data into a decade-long snapshot of what riders leave behind. Uber said New York City was once again the most forgetful city and July 17 was the most forgetful day of the year. The index also tracks shifting habits over time, from AirPods, vaccine cards and face masks in 2021 to Ozempic in 2025.

The robotaxi entries were more revealing than the usual missing phone. Uber said the list included dentures, a Squishmallow, an “I Heart Hot Dads” bag, a blue hat reading “Emotional Support Human,” a 15-pound yo-yo, a large black marble duck and a Charli XCX poster. The variety underscores the awkward reality of a service that can drive itself but still needs a human-built system to sort out what happens after a passenger walks away without a bag, a phone or a pair of false teeth.

That problem is growing as Uber expands its autonomous footprint. Waymo on Uber launched in Austin on March 4, 2025, and later expanded to Atlanta. Uber has also added Motional in Las Vegas and Avride in Dallas, though those services still use human safety operators behind the wheel. The company said the scale of those networks makes lost-item handling more than a novelty. It is now a core customer-service function.

Uber said riders in select markets can open the Activity tab, tap Find lost item, report the missing item and request a return trip with the original driver if the item is located. The improved lost-items experience is live in California, Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Georgia, Minnesota and Massachusetts, with nationwide rollout planned by the end of 2026. In robotaxi cases, riders can contact support, and if the item is found they can either pay $15 for an Uber Courier driver to provide same-day local delivery or pick it up at an autonomous-vehicle depot.

The company’s help pages also say Uber and drivers are not responsible for items left in vehicles after a trip ends, because drivers are independent contractors. That leaves robotaxi retrieval at the center of a larger question for the business: who owns the lost-item problem when there is no driver sitting in the car to answer for it.