Waymo’s Robotaxi Rides Approach Parity with Uber and Lyft Pricing
In the evolving landscape of urban transportation, the cost disparity between autonomous and traditional ride-hailing services is diminishing. Recent data from Obi, a company that aggregates real-time pricing and pickup times across multiple ride-hailing platforms, indicates that Waymo’s robotaxi fares are becoming increasingly competitive with those of human-driven Uber and Lyft rides.
Between November 27 and January 1, Obi conducted over 94,000 simulated ride requests in the San Francisco Bay Area. The findings revealed that Waymo rides averaged $19.69, while Uber and Lyft rides were slightly lower at $17.47 and $15.47, respectively. This marks a significant shift from data collected in April 2025, where Waymo’s average fare was $20.43, compared to Uber’s $15.58 and Lyft’s $14.44. Over this period, Waymo reduced its average fare by 3.62%, whereas Uber and Lyft increased theirs by 12% and 7%, respectively.
Ashwini Anburajan, CEO of Obi, suggests that this trend reflects a waning novelty of autonomous rides among Bay Area residents, prompting Waymo to adopt more competitive pricing strategies. She notes that while early adopters were willing to pay a premium for the autonomous experience, the market is now demanding more cost-effective options.
An unexpected player in this evolving market is Tesla. Obi’s report includes data on Tesla’s emerging ride-hailing service, which appears to offer lower fares than its competitors. However, several factors complicate this comparison. Tesla’s service in the San Francisco area operates under a transportation charter permit, utilizing employees to drive vehicles equipped with its Full Self-Driving software. This differs from the fully autonomous operations of Waymo.
Additionally, Tesla’s fleet in the Bay Area is relatively small. Crowdsourced data from Robotaxi Tracker indicates approximately 168 vehicles in Tesla’s ride-hail fleet, not all of which are active simultaneously. This limited fleet size contributes to longer wait times, with Tesla averaging an estimated time of arrival (ETA) of 15.32 minutes. In contrast, Waymo’s average wait time is 5.74 minutes, up from 4.28 minutes in April 2025. Lyft and Uber report average ETAs of 5.14 minutes and 3.15 minutes, respectively.
The interplay of fleet size, human drivers, and wait times influences Tesla’s pricing strategy. Scaling its robotaxi service, which relies solely on camera inputs, could potentially allow Tesla to offer rides at lower prices than competitors like Waymo, which employs a combination of sensors in its autonomous vehicles.
This narrowing price gap signifies a pivotal moment in the ride-hailing industry. As autonomous vehicle technology advances and becomes more cost-effective, consumers can anticipate more competitive pricing and diverse options in urban transportation.
