Waymo Premier's $30/month Subscription Faces Scrutiny Amidst Competitor Pricing

Waymo — the Alphabet-owned driverless taxi service which has seen a rapid expansion in recent years — is rolling out a new rewards program today.

The service is called Waymo Premier, and it promises priority pickups along with a 10 percent in-app rebate applied to future rides. Subscribers will also get fee-free cancellations, though only up to five a month. Lastly, Premier gives subscribers the chance to be among the first to use Waymo in new cities as the service expands, which is certainly one way to reframe the concept of paying to beta test those new coverage areas.

The asking price for all of this is $30 a month, and that's where Waymo Premier feels like it's jumping the shark. Uber One, the loyalty service for Waymo's human-driven competitor, is only $10 a month but gets you discounts on hotels, car rentals and food delivery, in addition to 6 percent in-app credits on rides. You even get 10 percent of a car rental cost credited to your Uber account.

Meanwhile, Lyft offers Lyft Pink, which also costs $10 a month and gets you 5 percent off Standard rides along with free priority pickup. The whole point of eliminating the driver from a taxi service was supposed to be saving on human labor costs, but when you're putting drivers out of a job and charging the customer three times as much, it's fair to question where the value of Waymo Premier is hiding.

It's not as if you'll offset the inflated price of Waymo Premier by riding with robots, either. As found by rideshare data analytics firm Obi in a June 2025 report, a ride with Waymo is much more expensive on average than the same ride taken with Uber or Lyft. So, you're paying more for the subscription and more per-ride, all to be carted around by a self-driving system that still needs human intervention from remote workers. It's not exactly the deal of the century, and you never know when your ride will crush a beloved neighborhood cat to death.