As petrol and diesel prices have risen by ₹8 per litre in the last ten days — crossing the ₹100 per litre mark in Delhi — I asked ChatGPT, which would be a more affordable means to commute daily to work, driving my own car or hailing a cab.
The ChatGPT prompt
I am a 35-year-old marketing professional. I reside in South Delhi and travel to and from Sector 65, Gurugram daily. The distance is around 30 kilometers but it takes me 1.5 hours to from my house to office at 8.30 am; and it takes me over 2 hours from office to home, if I leave by 5.30pm. The reason for this is excessive traffic congestion in peak hours, especially on Delhi-Gurgugram routes.
If I take a cab both ways (home to office, and office to home), I end up paying an average of ₹1,500-1,600 per day. The bill includes a booking fee of ₹6, tolls and surcharges of ₹100, and a fare of ₹700- ₹800.
On some days, I take my personal hatchback car, which gives a mileage of 15km per litre of petrol in peak traffic. Now that petrol prices have risen by ₹8 per litre in the last 10 days, with petrol crossing ₹100 per litre in Delhi. What’s a better way to commute — a cab or drive my own car?
ChatGPT’s approximate daily comparison
1) Driving your own car
Round-trip distance: ~60 km
Mileage in traffic: ~15 km/litre
Fuel needed daily: ~4 litres
Petrol cost (@ ₹100/litre): ~ Rs400/day
Now add realistic ownership costs:
- Expense Approx/day
- Fuel ₹400
- Toll/parking ₹100– Rs150
- Maintenance, tyres, servicing, depreciation ₹250– Rs350
Total expense: approximately ₹750– ₹900/day
2) Uber both ways
You already spend:
₹1,500– ₹1,600/day
That is: roughly ₹33,000 – ₹35,000/month
or around ₹4–4.2 lakh/year
Financially: Own car wins comfortably
Even after accounting for:
- higher petrol prices,
- poor mileage in congestion,
- maintenance,
- depreciation,
your hatchback car likely costs 40–50% less than daily cabs.
But the bigger question is fatigue
Your commute is:
- 3.5+ hours daily,
- in NCR peak congestion,
- on one of India’s most stressful corridors.
That changes the equation. Driving yourself costs:
- mental energy,
- attention,
- stress,
- physical fatigue.
At 35, doing this five days a week can become more draining than the fuel bill suggests.
A cab ride buys:
- recovery time,
- ability to work/read/listen/rest,
- lower stress.
You’re effectively paying a premium for outsourcing the stress of Gurugram traffic.
The most rational middle path
For your route, the optimal balance is probably:
Use your own car as the default because the savings are too large to ignore; and use Uber selectively for:
- late evenings,
- exhausting workdays,
- heavy rain/smog days,
- when you need to work during commute,
- days with client calls.
That way, you avoid spending ₹4 lakh/year on cabs, but also avoid burning yourself out driving every single day.
One more option worth considering
A hybrid commute via Delhi Metro may actually outperform both on stress.
For example:
- drive or auto to a Metro station,
- Metro toward Gurgaon,
- short cab/auto last mile to Sector 65.
It may not drastically reduce total time, but it can: reduce unpredictability, reduce driving fatigue, cut costs sharply, make commute time usable rather than exhausting.
Purely economically though, your hatchback car is the better commute option.