Hailing a Waymo robotaxi in Los Angeles just got easier. On Tuesday, the self-driving company scrapped its waitlist for the area and opened up rides for anyone with the Waymo One app.
Now, any interested passengers can hop in a Waymo 24/7 and ride across nearly 80 square miles of LA County, including Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and Downtown LA — with plans to expand into more areas soon. This comes after Waymo rolled out commercial operations in LA earlier this year, with nearly 300,000 people joining a waitlist to ride, according to the company. Now, you can simply download the Waymo One app, put in your destination and go.
Waymo, which is owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, has been expanding its operations across the US in recent months. In June, it similarly eliminated its waitlist in San Francisco. And in October, it began opening up rides for people on its interest list in Austin, Texas. Waymo plans to make its robotaxis available in both Austin and Atlanta via the Uber app in 2025. In metro Phoenix, public riders can already hail a Waymo via the Waymo One app or Uber.
Waymo is also testing autonomous rides on freeways in Phoenix. In an exclusive video shared with CNET in May, the company showed its vehicles navigating on- and off-ramps and changing lanes without a driver behind the wheel.
The company uses the all-electric Jaguar I-Pace to operate its ride-hailing service. But in October, it announced a partnership with Hyundai to integrate its next-generation Driver into the all-electric Ioniq 5 SUV, which, according to a blog post, “will be added to the Waymo One fleet over time.” Testing with these vehicles will start by late 2025 and become available “in the years to follow,” the companies say.
Watch this: Testing Waymo’s Safe Exit Feature in a Self-Driving Taxi
I’m a regular with Waymo’s San Francisco ride-hailing service and can confirm that, while the first few moments can be slightly off-putting (seeing a wheel turn by itself is not normal), I adjusted quickly and it felt just like a regular ride. The cost and wait time vary depending on time of day and location, but in my experience, prices are comparable to what you’d pay with Uber or Lyft (though they do tend to lean slightly higher at times).
Now, in San Francisco, Waymo’s robotaxis are sharing the road with the new kid on the block: Zoox. The Amazon-owned self-driving company is deploying its fleet of “purpose-built” robotaxis without a steering wheel, pedals or driver’s seat in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood, as well as the Las Vegas Strip. Zoox’s vehicles are not yet open to public riders, but the company says it plans to launch commercially in 2025 in Vegas.
The rollout of these robotaxis hasn’t always been smooth sailing. Waymo’s vehicles have been involved in a handful of high-profile collisions, including one with a biker in San Francisco, and another with a towed pickup truck in Phoenix. The company recalled and updated its software to address the issue. And in May, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched investigations into both Waymo and Zoox for incidents in which company vehicles behaved erratically. That includes Waymo colliding with parked vehicles, and sudden braking on Zoox’s test fleet, according to the NHTSA.
General Motors-owned Cruise, which also operated a ridehailing service in San Francisco, faced similar backlash for safety concerns and was suspended indefinitely in California last year after one of its driverless cars hit a jaywalking pedestrian. Cruise has since resumed operating manual and supervised rides in certain cities. In the face of regulatory hurdles and questions about driverless capabilities, Waymo, Zoox and Cruise have all published reports touting the safety of their respective vehicles and technologies.
See also: Waymo Teams Up With Hyundai for Future Rides: Everything to Know About the Growing Robotaxi Service
