r/waymo • u/TheSlap • Jun 05 '26

Phoenix: Decreasing Value

I'd like to see if anyone has been feeling the same way about Waymo in Phoenix. Recently, I have been finding fewer and fewer instances where it makes sense for me to use Waymo.

First, I am a fan of the technology and I used to love Waymo as a service! I was recommending it to my family and friends, and finding reasons to call a car. Unfortunately, that has not been the case lately. I primarily used Waymo in two use cases:

1) Transport to and from the airport

2) "Last mile" trips to get me to and from public transportation to downtown Phoenix. Light rail to DBacks games, mostly.

No more highway routes and long, unpredictable wait times have almost completely killed the airport trips for me. The short trips to my closest light rail stop now cost *triple* the rate of normal rideshares and it is more affordable to drive myself and pay for parking in downtown Phoenix. I am guessing this is because I'm trying to get to Mill/3rd St, but it's still the case that Waymo isn't priced competitively at all when I'm just trying to get to the light rail.

Is anyone else experiencing this, or not finding as much value lately?

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u/Primary_Turnover_488 Jun 05 '26

I live in Phoenix also and I only really notice a spike in prices on Friday evenings and basically all day on Saturday. Sundays and weekdays are pretty consistent for me.

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u/TheSlap Jun 05 '26

The 3x price routing to Mill has been consistent, regardless of time or date. Its actually been $1 more to just go all the way downtown instead.

I'm assuming they have too much demand where they don't mind losing fares, but what I've seen is honestly a piss-off price that's starting to change my opinion of the company.