It’s less than a month until our first annual Urban Autonomy Summit, presented by Nexar, on October 8th, at Newlab in Brooklyn. Space is limited, but you can apply to attend here if you’re interested in joining the festivities!

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, and Substack. We now have transcripts available too (Click on the “transcripts” button in the top right corner of this post to access them).

In today’s episode, I’m speaking with Ashwini Anburajan, CEO of Obi, an app that compares real-time prices and pickup times across ride-hailing platforms. We discuss Ashwini’s journey from Upside to Obi, and her recent rise to the role of CEO. She goes over the facts and figures on price differences among human/AV rideshare providers and the recent trends in rideshare pricing, including rideshare loyalty programs and opportunities for riders and providers. She also talks about Obi’s international operations and their somewhat complicated relationship with rideshare providers.

Ashwini dove into Waymo’s recent pricing data and shared additional insights, including customer attitude toward wait times and her thoughts on Waymo’s pricing model across its jurisdictions — such as Waymo on Uber in Austin and the forthcoming Waymo on Lyft in Nashville. We also discussed how the AV landscape would evolve in the coming times, and market fragmentation from the customers’ POV.

Chapters

(00:00) Introduction to Ashwini, and her background

(03:34) What Obi does and Ashwini’s focus as the new CEO

(05:14) Insights on pricing differences among human/AV rideshare providers and the logic behind them

(09:54) Recent trends in rideshare pricing

(11:49) Rideshare customer pricing behaviour

(14:16) Rideshare loyalty programs and the opportunities that lie within

(16:18) The international landscape of rideshare

(20:23) Obi’s international operations

(21:29) Obi’s relationship with rideshare providers

(22:59) Waymo pricing report

(25:59) Customer attitude towards wait times

(28:49) Ashwini’s thoughts on Waymo’s pricing

(31:19) Peculiarities of Waymo on Uber, in Austin and Atlanta

(32:18) Lyft–Waymo partnership and pricing insights

(35:12) How will the AV landscape evolve from the customer/pricing POV?

(36:46) Human/AV rideshare market fragmentation from the customers’ POV

(38:50) Conclusion and final thoughts

Notes/Links:

* Apply to attend our Urban Autonomy Summit here

* Obi’s Waymo pricing data - The Road Ahead: Pricing Insights On Waymo, Uber and Lyft

* TechCrunch article on Obi’s Waymo pricing data - Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft — and people are paying anyway

* Forbes article highlighting Obi’s Waymo pricing data - Waymo Is A Trillion-Dollar Opportunity. Google Just Needs To Seize It (no paywall)

* Obi blog (link)

- Harry

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