Despite a fresh $5.6 billion funding boost, Waymo’s autonomous ride-hailing service still can’t compete with traditional rideshares on either price or speed. In addition to being more costly, Waymo rides are also noticeably slower than regular Uber UBER or Lyft LYFT rides, according to a recent Forbes study.
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In a comparison of 50 rides in Los Angeles, Waymo rides cost an average of $9.50 more and took more than twice as long to get passengers to their destinations.
The main culprits for Waymo’s delays are conservative driving and an aversion to freeways. Waymo cars, which cannot navigate highways, take longer routes that stretch travel times. According to Forbes, in some cases what would have been a 29-minute Uber ride took more than an hour with Waymo. It doesn't help that Waymo often can’t drop passengers directly at their requested location, leaving some with an extra walk at the end of their journey.
Even as Waymo expands, it’s becoming clear that the company’s self-driving service is more of a premium novelty than a realistic transportation alternative. Although the service is interesting to people who are curious about autonomous technology, regular users of ride-hailing apps are unlikely to replace it because of its higher prices and slower journey times. Despite raising billions, Waymo is having trouble competing with ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft, which have become essential components of city life.
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A 2023 JD Power poll revealed that only 37% of consumers feel comfortable riding in an autonomous vehicle, down from 42% in 2021. With stories of driverless Waymos getting into traffic mishaps – such as a reported 19-car pileup in San Francisco – it’s no wonder many are wary of trusting these cars.
While the share of Americans using ride-hailing services has more than doubled since 2015, with 36% of adults having used an app like Uber or Lyft by 2018, only a small portion of users rely on these services regularly. Even fewer have opted for driverless cars. And when Waymo’s cars cause bizarre incidents, like getting stuck in traffic alongside each other or waking up residents by honking at each other in confusion, it's not exactly an advertisement for convenience.
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To grow its robotaxi service beyond its present operations in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix, Waymo recently closed a $5.6 billion Series C fundraising round. The funding round, led by Alphabet – Waymo’s parent company – alongside investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity and Tiger Global, aims to help Waymo advance its technology and expand to new cities. Co-CEOs Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov emphasized that this investment will support the expansion of the Waymo One ride-hailing service and further improvements in the Waymo Driver for broader business applications.
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