Tesla’s robotaxis are cheaper than Waymo’s, but wait times are longer

Tesla’s robot cars are not robotaxis in the sense that they are not completely driverless It still features safety screens With access to a kill switch in case anything goes wrong. But the automaker is shaking things up with its approach to pricing, according to a new analysis of the emerging market.

Obi, an app that collects real-time prices and pick-up times for multiple transportation services, has published a sequel to Its report from last year Which analyzed Waymo’s pricing and rider satisfaction compared to traditional transportation services like Uber and Lyft. The new report now takes into account Tesla’s service, as the previous survey represents data from before Elon Musk entered the market.

The report is based on more than a month of data collected between November 27, 2025, and January 1, 2026. A total of 94,348 trips from Waymo, Tesla, Uber, and Lyft were included as part of the data set.

In its analysis, Obi found that Tesla’s robotaxis are significantly less expensive than Waymo, and even Uber and Lyft — but they also have some of the longest wait times in the industry. Tesla’s robo-taxis were so cheap that they brought to mind the early days of Uber, when the ride-hailing company used venture capital money to dramatically undercut its legacy taxi operations with ultra-cheap UberX fares.

The average price for a Tesla robo-taxi ride in San Francisco was $8.17, and rarely exceeded $10 per ride, according to an Obi analysis. This is significantly cheaper than the next cheapest option, Lyft, which averages $15.47 per ride. Tesla’s average price was $1.99 per kilometer, the lowest number in this category Obi had ever seen in his reports. Compare that to Waymo’s price of $5.72 per kilometer, and you start to get a picture of how Tesla is shaping the competitive landscape.

Speaking of Waymo, the pioneer of robotaxis is now within everyone’s reach. Last June, Obi reported that Waymo’s robo-taxi rides were on average 30 to 40 percent more expensive than Uber and Lyft. But the gap is narrowing now, because Waymo has been cutting its prices, but also because Uber and Lyft’s prices are rising. Waymo is now 12.7% more expensive than Uber and 27.3% more expensive than Lyft. For long trips between 4.3 and 9.3 kilometers, Waymo is only 2 percent more expensive than Uber and 17 percent more expensive than Lyft on a per-kilometre basis.

Of course, there are a number of caveats to stay away from before you can start making blanket comparisons between Tesla and Waymo. For example, Tesla operates a handful of vehicles in San Francisco and Austin, while Waymo says it has roughly 2,000 to 2,500 vehicles in five U.S. cities. As of December 2025, Waymo says it offers 450,000 paid rides each week. Tesla lacks the necessary permits To start driverless operations in California, it has just It has just begun testing fully autonomous vehicles in Texasalbeit with chase cars. There are many experts who have Raised suspicions About whether Tesla will one day achieve full autonomy with its current hardware.

However, Tesla’s cheap robotaxi prices are a sign of the fierce competition that is sure to come for the robotaxi market. The company’s willingness to aggressively support its services in hopes of wresting market share from its competitors is noteworthy, but it also begs the question: How much longer can Tesla keep this up? The fact that the company is pricing its services so low to begin with, even before removing safety monitoring devices from its vehicles, may seem to some like putting the cart before the driverless horse. But time will tell how committed Tesla is to this pricing structure.

You may not have to pay a lot for a Tesla robo-taxi ride, but patience is definitely a requirement. The company’s robo-taxi service in San Francisco has the longest wait times ever, with an average expected time of arrival of 15.32 minutes — “significantly higher” than Waymo, Uber and Lyft, Opie says.

Meanwhile, Waymo’s average expected time of arrival is 5.74 minutes. Outside of peak demand in the afternoon, when Waymo’s estimated arrival times are much longer, Alphabet’s wait times are often shorter than Uber’s and approach Lyft’s at many times of the day, Obi says.

As for consumer demand, Obi surveyed 2,000 people from California, Nevada, Texas and Arizona to see how they felt about these new robots. Enthusiasm is growing, as the survey showed a significant increase in comfort levels while riding in a robotaxi compared to the last survey – rising from 35 percent to 63 percent.

People are less than thrilled about high costs, with 45 percent of respondents citing it as a concern. Other points of dissatisfaction included long wait times (33 percent), cancellations (29 percent), and lack of competition (24 percent). But confidence in technology is on the rise. More than half of survey respondents believe robotaxis will be safer than human-driven trips within five years, suggesting growing confidence despite some recent headlines. However, safety remains a sticking point, with more than 50 percent of respondents citing it as an ongoing concern, while 47 percent said they were concerned about potential failure.

Obi says it hopes to include Zoox, which recently launched a free robotaxi service in San Francisco, in its next analysis.