Robotaxis have lengthy promised cheaper journeys and shorter wait instances, however to this point, suppliers have struggled to match conventional platforms. New pricing and timing information from San Francisco exhibits 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 typically piled in for some not-so-cheap thrills, however increased 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 which may be about to alter. Information on almost 100,000 rides in San Francisco between Thanksgiving and New 12 months’s Day, exhibits Waymo is now far 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 diminished wait instances as a result of now you’ll be able to truly evaluate them. It is a extra trustworthy 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 standard ride-hailing. By late 2025, that premium had shrunk to only 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 almost disappears, with Waymo solely 2 p.c pricier than Uber and 17 p.c greater than Lyft.
Tesla, however, is now the most cost effective service by a major margin. The common Tesla journey prices $8.17 and infrequently 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 after they first got here into the market—dramatically decrease pricing, undercutting what’s current out there, and actually simply driving adoption,” Anburajan advised Enterprise Insider.
It could possibly be a profitable technique. Worth stays the highest concern for patrons in a survey Obi carried out as a part of the analysis. Nonetheless, 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 3 times longer than its rivals. Waymo however is inside touching distance of the standard ride-hailing firms with a median wait of 5.74 minutes, in comparison with Lyft’s 4.20 minutes and Uber’s business main 3.28 minutes.
Obi additionally notes that Waymo’s longer common wait time is basically on account of a capability crunch through the 4 pm to six pm rush. Throughout much less busy durations, specifically early within the morning, Waymo typically has the bottom wait instances of all service suppliers.
Maybe most significantly, the examine found client attitudes in direction of driverless expertise seem 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 circled considerably. Final 12 months, solely 30.8 p.c of individuals mentioned 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 standard counterparts, it stays to be seen whether or not they can totally shut the hole in a client section the place a couple of minutes or {dollars} makes all of the distinction to prospects. But when they will sustain the momentum, it might not be lengthy till there are fewer human drivers on the highway.
