Robotaxis have lengthy promised cheaper journeys and shorter wait occasions, however thus far, suppliers have struggled to match conventional platforms. New pricing and timing information from San Francisco reveals that driverless companies are actually narrowing the hole with Uber and Lyft.
Whereas it’s been potential to hail a driverless taxi within the US since 2020, they’ve lengthy felt like an costly novelty. Vacationers and tech lovers usually piled in for some not-so-cheap thrills, however larger costs and longer wait occasions meant few individuals have been counting on them regularly.
However a new examine from ride-hailing worth aggregator Obi suggests that could be about to alter. Knowledge on almost 100,000 rides in San Francisco between Thanksgiving and New Yr’s Day, reveals Waymo is now rather more aggressive with Uber and Lyft on each value and availability. And whereas Tesla’s robotaxis nonetheless require a human security driver and wait occasions stay lengthy, the corporate is now undercutting everybody on worth.
“That is the most important change to me,” Ashwini Anburajan, CEO of Obi, instructed Enterprise Insider. “It is the convergence in worth in addition to the decreased wait occasions as a result of now you possibly can 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 dearer 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, alternatively, is now the most cost effective service by a major margin. The common 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 after they first got here into the market—dramatically decrease pricing, undercutting what’s current out there, and actually simply driving adoption,” Anburajan instructed Enterprise Insider.
It may very well be a profitable technique. Worth stays the highest concern for purchasers in a survey Obi carried out as a part of the analysis. Nonetheless, Tesla is lagging significantly on their second largest precedence—wait occasions.
Working with fewer than 200 autos throughout a 400-square-mile space, Tesla’s common wait time is 15.32 minutes—roughly 3 times longer than its rivals. Waymo alternatively is inside touching distance of the normal ride-hailing corporations with a median 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 essentially as a result of a capability crunch throughout the 4 pm to six pm rush. Throughout much less busy durations, specifically early within the morning, Waymo usually has the bottom wait occasions of all service suppliers.
Maybe most significantly, the examine found client attitudes in the direction of driverless know-how seem like shifting. Obi’s survey discovered 63 p.c of adults in areas with robotaxi companies are actually snug or considerably snug with self-driving automobiles, up from simply 35 p.c within the earlier survey.
Attitudes in the direction of security have additionally circled considerably. Final 12 months, solely 30.8 p.c of individuals mentioned they believed autonomous rideshares could 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 might not be lengthy till there are fewer human drivers on the highway.