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Tesla robotaxi prices undercut Uber, Lyft and Waymo in early Bay Area rollout, Obi data shows
- Perry Richardson
- 47 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Tesla’s early entry into the robotaxi market is reshaping rideshare pricing in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to new data from Obi, which shows the electric vehicle maker is offering trips at a steep discount to established rivals Uber, Lyft and Waymo.
The study found that Tesla robotaxi rides were tightly priced and rarely exceeded $10 during the survey period, significantly undercutting the fares charged by Uber, Lyft and Waymo in the same market. Tesla’s service, which still operates with a human safety driver onboard, remains limited in scale.
According to Obi’s data, Tesla robotaxis averaged $1.99 per kilometre. The median fare for a Tesla ride was $7.39 between 27 November 2025 and 1 January 2026. By comparison, the median price over the same period was $12.99 for Lyft, $14.94 for Uber and $17.25 for Waymo, representing a 133.42 percent increase from the lowest to the highest median fare.
Obi said the pricing marks a sharp contrast with Waymo’s initial market entry, when autonomous rides were typically priced 30 to 40 percent higher than conventional ride-hailing services. At the time, consumers appeared willing to pay a premium, viewing autonomous travel as a higher-end option rather than a cost-saving alternative.
New analysis finds Tesla’s limited robotaxi service is charging less than half the average price of rival autonomous and ride-hailing services in San Francisco
That gap has since narrowed. Obi’s analysis shows the price difference between Waymo and Uber or Lyft has fallen to between 12 and 27 percent, driven by a combination of lower Waymo fares and rising prices from the two established ride-hailing platforms. The shift suggests Waymo may be adjusting its long-term pricing strategy as competition intensifies.
Alongside fare data, Obi’s report, titled The Cost of Autonomy: Tesla, Waymo, and the New Rideshare Battleground, also highlights a rapid change in consumer attitudes towards autonomous vehicles. A sentiment survey covering US states with active autonomous rideshare services found that 63 percent of respondents now say they are comfortable using autonomous vehicles, up from 35 percent in a similar study conducted in spring 2025.
Nearly half of respondents said autonomous vehicles could become their primary rideshare option in the future, compared with 24 percent less than a year earlier. Despite growing acceptance, safety remains the leading concern, followed by fears over technology failures and data privacy.
The research also identified a persistent gender gap in trust levels. Women were less likely than men to say they would rely on a robotaxi for sensitive journeys, such as collecting a child or travelling to hospital in an emergency, indicating that wider adoption may depend on addressing safety perception as much as price.
Ashwini Anburajan, CEO of Obi. "We're seeing the complete opposite with Tesla's robotaxis. With low prices that virtually never surge, it's a wholly new approach to pricing rideshare.
"Obi's riders have been enthusiastically adopting robotaxis – we see every day that the demand is very real, and it mimics what we see in survey data.
“At Obi, we're proud to have the best global rideshare data, which gives us the ability to access these insights into how the ways we get around are changing."
