Squishmallows, dentures and an ‘I Heart Hot Dads’ bag: Uber finds thousands of items left in taxis

Over the past 10 years, Uber’s annual lost-and-found index has offered a somewhat strange anthropological glimpse into its riders — and even some insights into society. The annual catalog of millions of forgotten items ranges from mundane modern-day gadgets like smartphones and laptops, to more surprising items like live fish, an ankle monitor, toboggans, a collection of live butterflies, and a single Louboutin shoe.

This year, Uber is using the report to highlight the same old problem of lost items with a new twist: robotaxis. Thousands of items (which is a bit new for millions) were left in robotaxis on Uber’s ride-hailing network last year, the company said Tuesday. There were the usual suspects of phones, keys, wallets, passports, and headphones, along with a few items that skewed into the who-is-this-passenger category: a set of dentures, an “I Heart Hot Dads” bag, and a blue “Emotional Support Human” hat.

Behind this entertaining list lies a business opportunity, albeit a small one. Even in a robotaxi future, someone will still have to return the items passengers leave behind.

Uber has spent the past several years striking up dozens of partnerships with autonomous vehicle (AV) technology companies. But it wasn’t until March 2025, when the “Waymo on Uber” robo-taxi service launched in Austin, that the commercial wheels in the autonomous vehicle business began to turn. Since then, Uber and Waymo have also started robo-taxi service in Atlanta. Uber has added other autonomous vehicle companies to its app in the past year, including Motional in Las Vegas and Avride in Dallas, though those companies still have human safety operators behind the wheel.

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

When an Uber rider forgets their belongings in a robo-taxi, the process of retrieving them is similar to any other Uber trip: Open the app, tap the Activity tab, select the trip during which the item was lost, and contact customer support. Riders can then message, chat, or call a support agent. If the item is located, you have two options: pay an Uber Courier driver $15 to provide same-day local delivery, or pick up the items in person from the AV Depot, where vehicles are stored and maintained.

Uber Courier is a rebrand of Uber Connect, which launched in 2020 and allowed users to send packages and personal items between local addresses. But Uber says its bot support network involves more than just repurposing existing services.

“With tens of millions of lost items reported to Uber every year, we’ve spent the last decade building systems that help riders quickly and easily reunite with their belongings,” Amy Satrum, global head of self-help at Uber, said in a statement. “As autonomous rides on Uber continue to expand, we’re bringing the same expertise to self-driving vehicles – by combining our fleet operations, support teams and hybrid network to make recovering a lost item simple, even when there’s no driver behind the wheel.”

In February, the company announced Uber standalone solutionsa new business division that communicates its greater ambitions around driverless technology. The division provides companies with a suite of services that handle all the tasks associated with operating a robotaxi, self-driving truck, or robot curbside delivery business, including software and support services.

It’s clear that Uber means making autonomous vehicles a major revenue driver. The company plans to offer robotaxi rides through its app in up to 15 cities globally by the end of the year, and said it intends to be the world’s largest facilitator of autonomous vehicle rides by 2029.