Tesla Tops Robotaxi Rankings On Price—but Comes Last For Convenience

Tesla Tops Robotaxi Rankings on Price—but Comes Last for Convenience

Last updated: 2026/02/01 at 9:02 AM

News Room Published 1 February 2026

Tesla’s robotaxis may not be leading the way on speed or convenience, but they are leading on price, according to new research from rideshare comparison app Obi. The report analyzed data collected between November 27, 2025, and January 1, 2026, covering 94,348 rides from Waymo, Tesla, Uber, and Lyft across the city of San Francisco and into the South Bay.

Tesla’s robotaxis stood out as a clear pricing outlier. Obi’s data shows that a Tesla robotaxi ride in San Francisco rarely exceeds $10, averaging $8.17 per ride. That’s $7.30 cheaper than Lyft, the next most affordable option at $15.47. Uber follows at $17.47, while Waymo comes in at the most expensive at $19.69 per ride.

But these lower prices come with a clear trade-off. According to Obi, consumers wait significantly longer on average for a Tesla robotaxi than for its competitors. Tesla’s average ETA was 15.32 minutes—around ten minutes longer than Waymo’s 5.74 minutes and well behind Uber’s 3.28 minutes for autonomous rides booked through its platform.

However, exact comparisons between Tesla and Waymo robotaxis may be somewhat misleading. All of Tesla’s robotaxis still feature a human safety driver at the wheel with access to an emergency “kill switch” if things go wrong.

The report also highlights shifting consumer attitudes toward robotaxis in general, polling areas across the US where there is at least one service offering the ability to hail autonomous rides. Roughly 63% of respondents said they are comfortable or somewhat comfortable with autonomous vehicles, while just 16% said they are uncomfortable. That marks a significant year-on-year shift. When Obi conducted the same study in January 2025, only 35% described themselves as comfortable or somewhat comfortable, a 28-percentage-point increase.

Recommended by Our Editors

Despite Tesla’s pricing advantage, Waymo remains the preferred robotaxi brand overall. Nearly 40% of respondents (39.8%) selected Waymo as their favorite, compared to 31.1% who chose Tesla. Another 13% opted for the Amazon-owned newcomer Zoox—which was not included in the ride data analysis—while 16.1% said they had no preference.

Preferences also varied significantly depending on what gender you asked. Men were far more likely to favor Tesla, with 56% naming it their preferred robotaxi brand, compared to just 35% of women. Tesla is very much the new kid on the block in the robotaxi space. The firm’s robotaxis debuted less than a year ago, in June 2025, in Austin, Texas. Waymo, by contrast, launched its service in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2018, though it did not begin offering fully autonomous rides to consumers until 2020.