Taxi and Limousine Services NAICS 485310, 485320

May 9, 2025 - Robotaxi Race Heats Up

• Competition is heating up in the robotaxi market as big tech races to launch or grow driverless taxis in select US markets. Alphabet’s Waymo is the dominant player so far, with about 250,000 paid robotaxi rides each week, and a partnership with Uber making its vehicles hailable through its app. Amazon’s Zoox is testing in Nevada and California, but had to briefly pause operations and push through a software patch after one of its vehicles crashed in Las Vegas in April 2025. This came on the heels of a closed probe into other Zoox crashes last summer resulting in a similar recall. Tesla, however, has fared the worst. It has been riddled with reports of crashes and software glitches ahead of its Austin, Texas test run in June 2025. It also ran into branding issues when the US Patent & Trademark Office denied a trademark on “robotaxi” as too generic.
• Paratransit services nationwide could hit a speedbump in 2025 if the Federal Transportation Authority (FTA) adopts a proposed rule requiring rideshare companies who participate in paratransit programs to drug test drivers. Paratransit - demand-driven, door-to-door public transportation services for those with disabilities - is required under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Recent partnerships with rideshare companies like Lyft and Uber to broaden paratransit offerings beyond buses and trains are now available in about 80 cities across the US. The FTA said it erred in not making rideshare driver testing a condition of partnering with a transit agency to offer paratransit services. Industry pushback against the change has been aggressive, with many rideshare companies arguing they already have safety procedures in place and the FTA rule adds a redundant safety layer and increases costs, which could force them to end paratransit partnerships.

• Workplace occupancy, an indicator of demand for taxi and limousine service, was 51.4% for the seven-day period ending on December 18, down from 53.7% for the seven-day period ending on December 11, according to data gathered from swipes of access control cards in buildings with security systems provided by Kastle Systems. Occupancy rarely hit the 50% mark from the early days of the coronavirus pandemic through early 2024 despite attempts by many organizations to bring employees back. The Houston, TX, metropolitan area had the highest occupancy for the seven-day period ending on December 18 at 60.3%. The San Francisco, CA, metropolitan area trailed all others tracked at 39.1%.
• Total revenue for transit and ground passenger transportation increased 22.9% year over year and 8.1% quarter over quarter in the second quarter of 2024, according to the US Census Bureau. Taxi and limousine service industry employment increased slightly while average wages for nonsupervisory employees decreased moderately during the first nine months of 2024, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Taxi and limousine service industry sales are forecast to grow at a 6.54% compounded annual rate from 2024 to 2028, faster than the growth of the overall economy, according to Inforum and the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc.