Waymo Closes in on Uber and Lyft Costs, as Extra Riders Say They Belief Robotaxis

Robotaxis have lengthy promised cheaper journeys and shorter wait instances, however thus far, suppliers have struggled to match conventional platforms. New pricing and timing information from San Francisco reveals that driverless providers at the moment are narrowing the hole with Uber and Lyft.

Whereas it’s been doable to hail a driverless taxi within the US since 2020, they’ve lengthy felt like an costly novelty. Vacationers and tech fanatics usually piled in for some not-so-cheap thrills, however greater costs and longer wait instances meant few individuals have been counting on them frequently.

However a new examine from ride-hailing value aggregator Obi suggests that could be about to alter. Information on practically 100,000 rides in San Francisco between Thanksgiving and New Yr’s Day, reveals Waymo is now way more aggressive with Uber and Lyft on each value and availability. And whereas Tesla’s robotaxis nonetheless require a human security driver and wait instances stay lengthy, the corporate is now undercutting everybody on value.

“That is the largest change to me,” Ashwini Anburajan, CEO of Obi, advised Enterprise Insider. “It is the convergence in value in addition to the lowered wait instances as a result of now you’ll be able to truly evaluate them. It is a extra sincere comparability between the three platforms.”

The final time Obi analyzed information on these two key metrics was in June 2025, when it discovered that Waymo rides value 30 to 40 p.c greater than typical ride-hailing. By late 2025, that premium had shrunk to simply 12.7 p.c costlier than Uber and 27.3 p.c greater than Lyft. And for longer rides between 2.7 and 5.8 miles the hole practically disappears, with Waymo solely 2 p.c pricier than Uber and 17 p.c greater than Lyft.

Tesla, however, is now the most affordable service by a big margin. The typical Tesla experience prices $8.17 and barely exceeds $10, in comparison with Lyft’s $15.47 common, Uber’s $17.47, and Waymo’s $19.69, which suggests the corporate is making a concerted play to spice up its market share.

“They’re utilizing the playbook that Uber and Lyft used once they first got here into the market—dramatically decrease pricing, undercutting what’s current available in the market, and actually simply driving adoption,” Anburajan advised Enterprise Insider.

It might be a profitable technique. Worth stays the highest concern for purchasers in a survey Obi carried out as a part of the analysis. Nevertheless, Tesla is lagging significantly on their second greatest precedence—wait instances.

Working with fewer than 200 automobiles throughout a 400-square-mile space, Tesla’s common wait time is 15.32 minutes—roughly thrice longer than its rivals. Waymo however is inside touching distance of the standard ride-hailing firms with a mean wait of 5.74 minutes, in comparison with Lyft’s 4.20 minutes and Uber’s trade main 3.28 minutes.

Obi additionally notes that Waymo’s longer common wait time is basically because of a capability crunch in the course of the 4 pm to six pm rush. Throughout much less busy intervals, particularly early within the morning, Waymo usually has the bottom wait instances of all service suppliers.

Maybe most significantly, the examine found client attitudes in direction of driverless know-how look like shifting. Obi’s survey discovered 63 p.c of adults in areas with robotaxi providers at the moment are comfy or considerably comfy with self-driving automobiles, up from simply 35 p.c within the earlier survey.

Attitudes in direction of security have additionally rotated considerably. Final yr, solely 30.8 p.c of individuals stated they believed autonomous rideshares can be safer than common taxis inside 5 years, however within the newest survey this jumped to 52.5 p.c.

Whereas the analysis suggests robotaxis are quickly making up floor on their typical counterparts, it stays to be seen whether or not they can absolutely shut the hole in a client section the place a couple of minutes or {dollars} makes all of the distinction to clients. But when they will sustain the momentum, it will not be lengthy till there are fewer human drivers on the highway.