Squishmallows, dentures, and an ‘I Heart Hot Dads’ bag: Uber found thousands of leftovers from robotaxis

For the past 10 years, Uber’s annual Lost and Found Index has provided a strange anthropological snapshot of its riders — and a few insights into society. The annual catalog of millions of forgotten items ranges from modern-day gadgets like smartphones and laptops, to eyebrow-raising items like live fish, an ankle monitor, a toboggan, a pack of live butterflies, and a single Louboutin shoe.

This year, Uber is using the report to highlight the age-old problem of lost items with a new twist: robotaxis. Thousands of items (a little over millions) have been left behind by robotaxis on Uber’s ride network over the past year, the company said Tuesday. There were the usual suspects of phones, keys, wallets, passports, and headphones, along with a few stray items in the passenger compartment: a set of dentures, an “I Heart Hot Dads” bag, and a blue hat that read “Emotional Support Human.”

Beyond this list of entertainment there is a business opportunity, if small. Even in the future of robotic taxis, someone still has to retrieve things that passengers leave behind.

Uber has spent the last few years locking in a number of partnerships with autonomous vehicle (AV) technology companies. But it wasn’t really until March 2025, when the “Waymo on Uber” robot service was launched in Austin, that the commercial wheels of its AV business started to turn. Since then, Uber and Waymo have also started a robot service in Atlanta. Uber has added other AV companies to its operating system in the past year, including Motional in Las Vegas and Avride in Dallas, though these still have driver safety personnel.

That Uber has already logged thousands of lost items in just 12 months gives you an idea of ​​how many robot rides have been completed on its app. The underlying message here is that Uber’s existing network is already set up to reunite riders with their lost items, including a 15-pound yo-yo, one giant black marble duck, a Squishmallow, and a Charli XCX poster.

If an Uber passenger forgets the robot’s belongings, the recovery process is the same as any other Uber ride: open the application, click on the activity tab, select the trip where the item is lost, and contact customer support. Passengers can then send a message, chat, or call a support agent. If the item is available, they have two options: pay $15 for an Uber Courier driver to provide local same-day delivery, or pick up their item at the AV depot, where vehicles are stored and serviced.

Uber Courier is a rebrand of Uber Connect, which was launched in 2020 and allowed users to send packages and personal items between local addresses. But Uber says there’s more to its robotaxi support network than simply restocking existing services.

“With tens of millions of lost items reported to Uber each year, we’ve spent the last decade building systems that help riders quickly and easily reunite with their belongings,” said Amy Satrom, Uber’s global head of independent support, in a statement. “As autonomous riders continue to grow on Uber, we’re bringing that technology to AVs — combining our fleet operations, support teams, and integrated network to make recovering a lost item easy, even when there’s no driver behind the wheel.”

In February, the company announced Uber Autonomous Solutions, a new business unit that conveys its larger ambitions for driverless technology. This division provides companies with a range of services that handle all tasks related to operating a robot, self-driving truck, or road delivery robot business, including software and support services.

And Uber apparently means to make AVs a major revenue driver. The company plans to provide robotaxi rides through its app in 15 cities around the world by the end of the year and said it aims to become the world’s largest AV travel promoter by 2029.