Waymo rides more than Uber or Lyft – and people pay anyway

The central hypothesis of robotics is that high use and low employment costs will eventually make it a cheap transfer option. This is still far from the right, but there is now some data that gives us an idea of ​​the amount.

Obi, an application that collects pricing times in actual time and receipt through multiple riding services, has just published what is called “”Waymo pricing strategy.“The company found that the auto-driving car in Waymo is more expensive than the comparative offers than Uber and Lyft-and does not seem important.

The report, exclusively with Techcrunch, depends on the value of the data collected for a month between March 25 and April 25 in San Francisco, California. OBI pulled nearly 90,000 “records” from Waymo, Lyft “Standard” and Uberx to compare the price and ETA. Then compare ride requests from the same times and roads. OBI found that LYFT offered the lowest price at $ 14.44. The next Uber was in $ 15.58. The average price of Waymo was based on the value of the month is $ 20.43.

This was somewhat surprising, given the early popularity of Waymo. Waymo said in May it provides 250,000 Funds paid in the week Through its first four cities. High prices seem to be not afraid of this excitement.

She said, “Colorful, there is an idea that independent vehicles are something that would wear drivers’ functions and expose drivers at risk. I think the paradox of what we saw is that in reality it is very expensive to run AV, and that this will not happen, at least in the short term.”

At peak hours, OBI found the average price of Waymo is about $ 11 more expensive than Lyft and about $ 9.50 more than Uber.

“I did not expect consumers to be ready to pay up to another 10 dollars,” Taburagan said. “I think (this) talks about a real feeling of excitement of technology, modernity and real preference to be in the car without a driver.”

OBI found that Waymo was not only more expensive, but there was greater variation in its prices more than Uber or Lyft.

One of the explanations is that a Waymo pricing model is not developed. She said that Uber and Lev had more than a decade to refine how to ride prices. These platforms are also more dynamic, as drivers inside and outside their time, join or completely abandon the party’s work.

Meanwhile, Waymo has fixed but slowly increasing supplies of vehicles (although this growth is It may accelerate soon). This has led to what Taburagan said is more than a “supply and order” pricing scheme.

This has two great effects on customers. The first is that short trips tend to cost more than longer flights. OBI found that a Waymo riding costs about $ 26 per kilometer if the ride remains less than 1.4 km.

This was true in Uber and Lover also. But OBI found that the shortest horse riding was 41.48 % and 31.12 % of Uber and Lyft, respectively. This gap has shrunk as horseback rides longer. In horseback riding between 4.3 km and 9.3 km, Lyft costs $ 2.60 per kilometer, Uber cost $ 2.90 per kilometer, and Waymo $ 3.50 per kilometer.

Another effect is that waiting times are longer equal to more expensive trips. After all, sending a car for a long time to capture a customer means that it will perform a fewer high and short margin.

Tirgane said this still does not encourage Waymo customers, although OBI found Waymo to have higher contrast in waiting times.

In addition to a deep -based diving, OBI also wiped the bicycles in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phenix, Arizona for a better understanding of what might lead these trends.

The company found that 70 % of the users who ride Waymo said they preferred a driver without a driver over the traditional Rideshare or taxi.

Despite this enthusiasm, Obi found that safety is still a great concern for passengers. Among those surveyed, 74 % of safety said is their biggest anxiety about robotics. Nearly 70 % of the respondents said they believe that there should be a form of human monitoring remotely to ride (something is already a common practice).

Perhaps it’s more surprising is how people answered a question about whether they are ready to pay more for the road. Nearly 40 % said they would pay “the same or less.” But 16.3 % said they would pay less than $ 5 per trip. 10.1 % said they would pay up to $ 5 per trip. 16.3 % said they would pay up to $ 10 per trip.

Tirgane said the responses like those that help explain Waymo Pricives.

She said, “There is something about being in the car alone.” “There, like, for example, they live in a small bubble and move from point A to point B, and be very comfortable doing this.”