Alphabet's (GOOG) Waymo and Baidu (BIDU) are well ahead of competitors in the robotaxi industry, with Waymo's monthly volume of paid rides nearly double Baidu's, Wedbush Securities said in a Friday note.
The autonomous vehicle industry's alignment across infrastructure, capital access, and regulatory processes remains its largest hurdle, the brokerage said, citing Martin Viecha, former vice president of investor relations at Tesla (TSLA).
Chinese operators and their capacity to disrupt the US ride-hailing model with only a small vehicle count are being underestimated by the market, Viecha said, according to the note.
"US-based investors (are) relatively underexposed to how quickly China has progressed given limited US analyst coverage and float while keeping everything behind closed doors from a deployment standpoint," Wedbush said.
Referring to robotaxis, Wedbush said the price-per-mile debate among investors is misdirected, noting that even though Waymo charges roughly $4.50 to $5.00 per mile compared with the $0.60 to $0.70 from Chinese operators such as Baidu (BIDU), Pony.ai (PONY), and WeRide (WRD), it is fully booked with at least 15-minute wait times in California.
Waymo can also charge a 20% premium compared with Uber (UBER) and Lyft (LYFT) due to its "superior" ride experience, Wedbush said.
