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 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 fans typically piled in for some not-so-cheap thrills, however greater costs and longer wait instances meant few folks have been counting on them regularly.
However a new examine from ride-hailing value aggregator Obi suggests which may be about to vary. 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 lowered wait instances as a result of now you’ll be able to really examine 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 only 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 typical Tesla experience 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 present out there, and actually simply driving adoption,” Anburajan advised Enterprise Insider.
It could possibly be a successful technique. Value stays the highest concern for purchasers in a survey Obi performed as a part of the analysis. Nevertheless, Tesla is lagging significantly on their second largest precedence—wait instances.
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 standard ride-hailing firms with a mean 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 essentially because of a capability crunch in the course of the 4 pm to six pm rush. Throughout much less busy intervals, specifically early within the morning, Waymo typically has the bottom wait instances of all service suppliers.
Maybe most significantly, the examine found shopper 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 comfy or considerably comfy 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 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 totally shut the hole in a shopper section the place a couple of minutes or {dollars} makes all of the distinction to prospects. But when they’ll sustain the momentum, it might not be lengthy till there are fewer human drivers on the highway.