Waymo’s self-driving taxis may not yet deliver the low-cost promise often associated with autonomous vehicles, but that isn’t stopping riders from paying a premium — or worrying about safety.
A new pricing study by ride data platform Obi, found 74% of riders cite safety as their top concern around robotaxis — even as they continue to choose Waymo’s higher-priced service. In San Francisco, Waymo rides averaged $20.43, compared to $15.58 for UberX and $14.44 for Lyft Standard — a 31% to 41% markup over traditional ride-hailing options.
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The data, drawn from nearly 90,000 ride offers collected between March 25 and April 25, compared real-time quotes and ETAs for matched trips across Waymo, Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE:UBER), and Lyft Inc. (NASDAQ:LYFT).
Despite the higher fares, the survey component of the report reveals that 70% of riders who’ve tried Waymo prefer it over a traditional rideshare, and a surprising share are even willing to pay more for the driverless experience.
The Obi report, titled “The Road Ahead: Pricing Insights On Waymo, Uber and Lyft“, is being described as the first in-depth analysis of Waymo’s pricing strategy by TechCrunch. Among key findings, Waymo’s pricing was significantly higher not only on average, but also at specific times, especially during peak hours.
At evening rush hour – 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. – Waymo rides were $11 more than Lyft and $9.50 more than Uber, according to the study. For short trips under 1.4 kilometers, Waymo charged up to $26.46 per kilometer, roughly 41.5% more than Uber and 31.1% more than Lyft on comparable routes.
Still, riders don’t seem to mind.
In a survey of 507 riders conducted by Obi across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, 70% of those who had used Waymo said they preferred driverless rides to traditional taxi or rideshare services.
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Obi’s survey also found that 74% of respondents cited safety as their biggest concern around autonomous vehicles. Despite having a positive ride experience, more than two-thirds said driverless cars should still have remote human monitoring, a practice Waymo currently employs.
“There’s something about being in the car alone,” Obi’s chief revenue officer, Ashwini Anburajan, told TechCrunch. “It is there for you to, like, kind of live in a little bubble and get from point A to point B, and be very comfortable doing so.”
Safety concerns were particularly high among older adults and women, with only 34% of women saying they would trust a Waymo to transport their child, compared to 48% of men, according to Obi’s findings.
Anburajan explained that Waymo’s higher prices and variability may be driven by a less sophisticated pricing model than Uber or Lyft, whose platforms benefit from a decade of real-time data and driver fluctuations. With Waymo’s fixed and slowly expanding fleet, pricing appears more directly influenced by supply-demand imbalances.
The study found a positive correlation between price and wait time, especially during high-demand periods like Friday and Saturday evenings. Longer ETA often translated directly to higher fares, with Waymo showing the highest elasticity in its afternoon time window.
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While Obi’s data is focused primarily on San Francisco, Reddit users chimed in with region-specific insights, suggesting Waymo’s pricing model might be more variable elsewhere.
“In Phoenix, I found Waymo to be cheaper than Uber and Lyft,” wrote one user on r/technology. Another noted, “In LA, about half the time Waymo was on par or cheaper — but the 15+ minute wait time occasionally pushed me back to traditional ride shares.”
“Safety issue too. The chances of getting raped in a Waymo are much lower than in an Uber because of the lack of drivers,” one more user noted.
These anecdotes hint that Waymo’s pricing and adoption trends may vary by city.
For now, Waymo, owned by Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG, GOOGL)), is reportedly handling over 250,000 paid rides weekly across multiple cities — and claims over 20% market share in San Francisco service zones, according to The Driverless Digest.
The Obi data shows that despite fears, consumer behavior is leaning toward premium autonomous experiences, at least in urban tech hubs. Whether this translates into sustained market dominance or niche adoption remains to be seen, but the willingness to pay more for a driverless ride is here.
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This article Nearly 75% of Riders Fear Robotaxi Safety – Yet Pay More for Waymo’s Driverless Experience originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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