{"id":75,"date":"2026-06-08T04:09:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T04:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanatlasmedia.com\/?p=75"},"modified":"2026-06-08T04:09:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T04:09:24","slug":"why-robot-driverless-taxis-spend-as-much-time-without-passengers-as-normal-taxis-study-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbanatlasmedia.com\/?p=75","title":{"rendered":"Why, Robot: Driverless Taxis Spend As Much Time Without Passengers as Normal Taxis, Study Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Driverless taxis spend just as much time driving around without a passenger as regular taxis, according to a new study \u2014\u00a0a finding that reveals a major shortcoming for a technology that boosters say will revolutionize transportation forever.<\/p>\n

Read more Friday Video: Dude, Where Are My Trains?<\/a><\/p>\n

The study in the journal Transport Findings reveals that robotaxis spend roughly 45 percent of their total mileage without passengers \u2014\u00a0which is so close to regular taxis that one transportation industry expert feels he\u2019s been lied to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been assured by these industry insiders that deadheading would fall to very low levels with robotaxis, but it\u2019s pretty clear that\u2019s not happening,\u201d said David Zipper, a contributing writer at Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

The concern is obvious: Commercial robotaxis are on the rise across the United States. According to the study \u2014\u00a0 \u201cMillions of Trips, \u201cWaymo\u201d Empty Miles: California\u2019s First Thousand Days of Commercial Robotaxi Service\u201d \u2014 robotaxi prevalence has grown by an average of 15 percent monthly since they were first introduced in August 2023. That 15 percent is consistent across all measures: trips completed, miles traveled and passengers carried.<\/p>\n

But the potential for robotaxis is also obvious: Unlike traditional taxi companies, which manage individual drivers, robotaxi companies manage fleets of cars. As a result, these companies should be able to program the vehicles\u2019 routes to avoid excessive deadheading. Instead, both traditional ride share and robotaxis travel almost half of their mileage without passengers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But change is happening \u2026 a little. According to the study, robotaxis now spend an average of 18 minutes empty between consecutive passenger trips, down from 28 minutes since 2023, likely due to an expanded fleet size which has allowed for a more efficient distribution of robotaxis, according to the author of the study.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, author Awad Abdelhalim, added that a larger fleet means more cars deadheading overall, so \u201cit cancels some of those benefits.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Awad said he wasn\u2019t surprised by the findings because taxi companies like Waymo are deploying their fleets using the same old methods of offering taxi service \u2014 namely by sending cars out of a depot.<\/p>\n

Read more Want to Win a Statewide Race? Embrace Transit Early and Often<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is quite a bit of deadheading naturally required to distribute vehicles across the service area to be able to serve customers,\u201d said Abdulhalim. He added that traditional ride share has \u201csome \u2018natural\u2019 distribution of vehicles based on where drivers are starting from based on home locations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robotaxis also travel without a passenger while waiting to be assigned one, and this measurement has remained steady throughout the course of the study.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the biggest problem,\u201d said Zipper. It\u2019s unclear exactly what robotaxis are doing during that time, but reporting from San Francisco and other cities where these cars operate suggests that they are, more or less, driving around aimlessly, passengerless.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Robotaxis only operate in select metropolitan areas included San Francisco, the Bay Area and Los Angeles, highly congested areas where deadheading only makes matters worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe presence of empty robotaxis does thicken traffic,\u201d Zipper said.\u00a0\u201cAll of these deadhead miles seem to counteract the safety claims that robotaxi companies have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waymo, the company leading the charge on robotaxis, has claimed \u2014 extensively, on its website \u2014 that its vehicles will make streets safer.<\/p>\n

Read more Talking Headways Podcast: Evolution, God and Transportation<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Autonomous car boosters say AVs will reduce vehicle miles traveled. But they don’t, a new study finds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-robot-cars"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy, Robot: Driverless Taxis Spend As Much Time Without Passengers as Normal Taxis, Study Shows - Urban Atlas Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/urbanatlasmedia.com\/?p=75\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why, Robot: Driverless Taxis Spend As Much Time Without Passengers as Normal Taxis, Study Shows - Urban Atlas Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Autonomous car boosters say AVs will reduce vehicle miles traveled. 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