The price gap between Waymo and Uber is narrowing

A trip in a Waymo robotaxi still costs more, on average, than a comparable ride in a human-driven Uber or Lyft. But that gap is narrowing, according to new data released on Tuesday from Obi, a company that aggregates real-time prices and pickup times across multiple transportation services.

Two factors, working together, are behind the change. Waymo has lowered its prices, at least in the San Francisco Bay Area where the data was drawn, while traditional rides on the Uber and Lyft networks have increased, according to Obi.

The new data was collected between Nov. 27 and Jan. 1, with Obi simulating more than 94,000 ride requests in the Bay Area. The company found that Waymo rides cost an average of $19.69, while Uber rides were slightly cheaper at $17.47. Lyft rides during the same period averaged $15.47.

In June, Obi released its first report analyzing robotaxi data in relation to the hail route. The data, which was taken from rides in April 2025, showed that Waymo rides averaged $20.43, Uber landed at $15.58 and Lyft rides equaled $14.44. Compared to these figures, Waymo’s average cost decreased by 3.62%, while Uber’s increased by 12% and Lyft’s increased by 7%.

Obi CEO Ashwini Anburajan told TechCrunch that she thinks this is a trend to watch because, while data from last April suggested that customers were willing to pay a higher price to drive a Waymo, the novelty is wearing off for people in the Bay Area. That means Waymo will likely have to continue to price its offering more competitively, he said.

The wild card: Tesla

The wildcard in Obi’s new report is that he collected data on Tesla’s burgeoning robotaxi service, which appears to be much cheaper than those other three offerings. But there are some important caveats.

First, Tesla does not technically operate a robotaxi service in the San Francisco area where the data was sampled. Tesla does not have the required licenses to operate a commercial driverless robotaxi service in the state. Nor is it licensed by a transportation network company like Uber or Lyft. Instead, Tesla has a charter transportation license from the California Public Utilities Commission, meaning the company uses employees to drive the company’s vehicles equipped with Full Self-Driving software.

Tesla’s Bay Area fleet is also modest. Crowd-sourced data from the Robotaxi Tracker website helped record it about 168 vehicles in the Tesla fleet, although not all of these cars are constantly active. (Obi notes in the report that only 156 were identified by the crowdsourced site at the time the company conducted its data sampling.)

This smaller fleet has led to wait times. Of the four services surveyed, Tesla had the longest wait time with an average ETA of 15.32 minutes. Waymo’s average wait time was 5.74 minutes (up from 4.28 minutes last April), while Lyft and Uber clocked in at 5.14 minutes and 3.15 minutes, respectively.

These elements — fleet size, human drivers, wait times — could have affected how Tesla’s prices drive at real scale, and it’s hard to say when and how that might happen. Tesla just recently pulled the safety screens from a handful of cars in Austin, Texas.

If Tesla can scale its robotics — which relies only on camera inputs — the company should theoretically be able to undercut rivals like Waymo, which embeds its self-driving software into modified vehicles equipped with many different kinds of sensors.

Popularity contest

Anburajan believes there is value in Tesla operating a ride-hailing service, before any attempt to operate true robotics.

“It’s not really an autonomous vehicle right now. It has a safety driver in it. They’re building brand familiarity. They’re building brand preference for people who already like Tesla and people who are inclined to like Tesla,” he said.

There is some evidence of this in the report released on Tuesday by Obi.

Along with ride requests sampled in the Bay Area, Obi surveyed 2,000 people in California, Nevada, Arizona and Texas on a range of issues related to robotaxics and driving. More than half of those respondents who had taken a ride in an autonomous vehicle said they had ridden in a Tesla robotaxi. And when asked which autonomous brand they preferred most, respondents chose Tesla 31% of the time.

Waymo was still the most preferred, with 39.8% of respondents choosing the Alphabet-owned brand. But this strong preference for Tesla, despite the company not yet operating a true robotaxi service at any scale, points to future demand.

This strong preference for Tesla is also largely driven by one particular group: men. Women surveyed by Obi were virtually evenly split on choosing Waymo or Tesla, with Zoox coming in third at 8 percent. But 56% of men surveyed preferred Tesla over Waymo (25%) or Zoox (7%).

What’s next?

Obi’s report provides a good foundation ahead of a year that will surely see many developments in the world of autonomous vehicles. Waymo is rapidly expanding into new cities, even partnering with Uber and Lyft in some of them. These companies are bringing many other autonomous vehicle partners to their platforms. And Tesla will likely look to prove the robotaxi approach works to expand its nascent offering.

Waymo is also set to start offering rides in a new van-like vehicle it’s building with Chinese company Zeekr. That vehicle, known as the Ojai, is expected to have a lower upfront cost for Waymo and could allow the company to be more aggressive with pricing.

However, one thing is clear for Anburajan: Real competition is coming. Other companies are preparing to launch their own robotaxi services. Nuro is supplying its self-driving system in modified Lucid Gravity vehicles as part of a premium robotaxi network to be operated by Uber. Hyundai-backed Motional has relaunched its efforts and plans to launch a commercial robotaxi service in Las Vegas before the end of the year. And other companies like Avride have partnered with Uber to bring robotaxis to other US cities.

“It’s still very early in the game, so no one’s late, right?” she said. “We’re in this new era, so who’s going to capture market share and move fast to win over consumers?”