Tesla is throwing down the gauntlet in the robotaxi wars with rock-bottom prices that undercut everyone - but riders will need patience. A new analysis from Obi, a ridehail aggregation app, reveals Tesla's San Francisco robotaxi service averages just $8.17 per ride, crushing Waymo's premium pricing while forcing riders to wait over 15 minutes for pickup. The data, spanning 94,348 rides between November 2025 and January 2026, exposes a classic tech playbook: subsidize aggressively now, worry about profits later. But with safety monitors still in the driver's seat and regulatory hurdles ahead, Tesla's pricing gambit raises a critical question - how long can this last?
Tesla is playing the long game in autonomous transportation, and the opening move is all about price. New data from Obi shows the company's robotaxi service is undercutting every competitor in San Francisco with fares that haven't been seen since Uber was burning through venture capital to kill the taxi industry.
The numbers are striking. Tesla's average robotaxi fare sits at $8.17, rarely breaking the $10 barrier according to Obi's report analyzing 94,348 rides collected between November 27, 2025, and January 1, 2026. That's nearly half what riders pay for Lyft, which averages $15.47 per trip in the same market.
But the real gut punch to competitors is Tesla's per-kilometer pricing: $1.99, the lowest figure Obi has recorded in its ridehail tracking. Compare that to Waymo's $5.72 per kilometer, and you start seeing how Elon Musk's company could reshape the entire competitive landscape - if it can scale.
The catch? You're going to wait for it. Tesla's average pickup time clocks in at 15.32 minutes, nearly three times longer than Waymo's 5.74-minute average. Obi's data labels this "considerably higher" than traditional ridehail services, exposing the reality that Tesla's operating just a handful of vehicles while Waymo runs 2,000-2,500 across five US cities.
