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Tesla Undercuts on Robotaxi Price as Waymo Closes Gap With Uber and Lyft

The latest Obi study adds Tesla for the first time, highlighting a trade-off between very low fares versus much longer waits.

Overview

  • Obi analyzed 94,348 simulated Bay Area ride requests from November 27, 2025 to January 1, 2026 across Tesla, Waymo, Uber, and Lyft.
  • Tesla posted the lowest prices by a wide margin, averaging $8.17 per ride and $1.99 per kilometer, with fares rarely exceeding $10.
  • Tesla also had the longest average wait time at 15.32 minutes, versus 5.74 for Waymo, 5.14 for Lyft, and 3.15 for Uber, reflecting a small supervised fleet that grew from just over 100 vehicles to roughly 170.
  • Waymo’s price premium has narrowed to about 12.7% over Uber and 27.3% over Lyft, and for mid-length trips its per‑kilometer pricing is only 2% above Uber as pickup times improve.
  • Consumer comfort with autonomous rides rose sharply in Obi’s 2,000-person survey, up to 63%, signaling growing acceptance as services scale and compete on cost and speed.