diff --git a/backend/ride/pricing/get.php b/backend/ride/pricing/get.php
index c32272cf..ce82364e 100644
--- a/backend/ride/pricing/get.php
+++ b/backend/ride/pricing/get.php
@@ -295,112 +295,10 @@ function calculateDynamicPrice($country, $minFare, $distance, $duration, $kazanR
 
     $price = max($fare, $minFare);
 
-    // Apply competitor-linked regional pricing overrides (undercut by 8%)
-    // Skip if it's an airport trip, as airport pricing is highly specific and should rely on our base + addon logic
+    // The real-time database competitor check is removed to prevent 40-second MySQL timeouts.
+    // The background AI Engine (cron_ai_engine.php) already handles undercutting competitors 
+    // by dynamically updating the base rates in the `kazan` table every hour.
     $competitorTarget = null;
-    if (isset($con) && $con !== null && !$airportCtx && !$damascusAirportBoundCtx && !$isInDamascusAirportBoundCtx) {
-        try {
-            $countryCodeMap = [
-                'Syria'  => 'SY',
-                'Jordan' => 'JO',
-                'Egypt'  => 'EG',
-                'Iraq'   => 'IQ'
-            ];
-            $cc = $countryCodeMap[$country] ?? 'SY';
-            
-            $latDelta = 0.02;
-            $lngDelta = 0.02;
-            
-            $minFlat = $passengerLat - $latDelta;
-            $maxFlat = $passengerLat + $latDelta;
-            $minFlng = $passengerLng - $lngDelta;
-            $maxFlng = $passengerLng + $lngDelta;
-            
-            $minTlat = $destLat - $latDelta;
-            $maxTlat = $destLat + $latDelta;
-            $minTlng = $destLng - $lngDelta;
-            $maxTlng = $destLng + $lngDelta;
-            
-            // Layer 1: Start and End match within bounding box
-            $sqlComp = "SELECT price_amount AS total_price, (price_amount / price_per_km) AS distance_km 
-                        FROM scraped_competitor_prices 
-                        WHERE country_code = :country_code
-                          AND created_at >= DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 24 HOUR)
-                          AND start_lat BETWEEN :min_flat AND :max_flat
-                          AND start_lng BETWEEN :min_flng AND :max_flng
-                          AND end_lat BETWEEN :min_tlat AND :max_tlat
-                          AND end_lng BETWEEN :min_tlng AND :max_tlng
-                          AND price_per_km > 0
-                        LIMIT 5";
-            $stmtComp = $con->prepare($sqlComp);
-            $stmtComp->execute([
-                ':country_code' => $cc,
-                ':min_flat' => $minFlat,
-                ':max_flat' => $maxFlat,
-                ':min_flng' => $minFlng,
-                ':max_flng' => $maxFlng,
-                ':min_tlat' => $minTlat,
-                ':max_tlat' => $maxTlat,
-                ':min_tlng' => $minTlng,
-                ':max_tlng' => $maxTlng
-            ]);
-            $matches = $stmtComp->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
-            
-            if (empty($matches)) {
-                // Layer 2 Fallback: Start match only within bounding box
-                $sqlFallback = "SELECT price_amount AS total_price, (price_amount / price_per_km) AS distance_km 
-                                FROM scraped_competitor_prices 
-                                WHERE country_code = :country_code
-                                  AND created_at >= DATE_SUB(NOW(), INTERVAL 24 HOUR)
-                                  AND start_lat BETWEEN :min_flat AND :max_flat
-                                  AND start_lng BETWEEN :min_flng AND :max_flng
-                                  AND price_per_km > 0
-                                LIMIT 10";
-                $stmtFallback = $con->prepare($sqlFallback);
-                $stmtFallback->execute([
-                    ':country_code' => $cc,
-                    ':min_flat' => $minFlat,
-                    ':max_flat' => $maxFlat,
-                    ':min_flng' => $minFlng,
-                    ':max_flng' => $maxFlng
-                ]);
-                $matches = $stmtFallback->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
-            }
-            
-            if (!empty($matches)) {
-                $normalizedPrices = [];
-                foreach ($matches as $row) {
-                    $compDist = (float)$row['distance_km'];
-                    $compPrice = (float)$row['total_price'];
-                    if ($compDist > 0) {
-                        // Only trust competitor trips that are somewhat close in distance scale (within 35%)
-                        // Otherwise, extrapolating a 3km traffic-heavy trip to 40km highway trip creates nonsense pricing
-                        $ratio = $distance / $compDist;
-                        if ($ratio >= 0.65 && $ratio <= 1.35) {
-                            $normalizedPrices[] = ($compPrice / $compDist) * $distance;
-                        }
-                    }
-                }
-                if (!empty($normalizedPrices)) {
-                    $competitorTarget = array_sum($normalizedPrices) / count($normalizedPrices);
-                }
-            }
-        } catch (Exception $e) {
-            error_log("[calculateDynamicPrice] Competitor pricing query failed: " . $e->getMessage());
-        }
-    }
-
-    if ($competitorTarget !== null) {
-        $undercutPrice = $competitorTarget * 0.92;
-        $speedBaseRate = getPerKmRate('Speed', $kazanRow);
-        $currentBaseRate = getPerKmRate($carType, $kazanRow);
-        $categoryMultiplier = $speedBaseRate > 0 ? ($currentBaseRate / $speedBaseRate) : 1.0;
-        
-        $targetAdjustedPrice = $undercutPrice * $categoryMultiplier;
-        if ($price > $targetAdjustedPrice) {
-            $price = $targetAdjustedPrice;
-        }
-    }
 
     // Apply kazan (e.g. 11%) on the passenger's price
     $withCommission = round($price * (1 + $kazanPercent / 100), 2);