Waymo, the autonomous vehicle division of Alphabet, will start offering autonomous ride-hailing services to the public in Los Angeles, California.
Last year, Waymo said it was expanding its robotaxi service to Los Angeles as it expands overall services to four major cities: Los Angeles, California; Phoenix, Arizona; San Francisco, California; and Austin, Texas. Waymo just started offering services to Austin last week.
“Once an unimaginable future, autonomous driving is now a real-world way of getting around for tens of thousands of people each week,” said Tekedra Mawakana, co-CEO of Waymo. “After achieving key milestones in each city, we're so excited to bring the safety, comfort and delight of our Waymo One service to more people in Los Angeles and Austin this year.”
The service in Los Angeles will begin with offering rides in a 63 square mile area from Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles. The rides will initially be free. However, as Waymo scales the operations, it will transition to paid service with California Public Utilities Commission’s recent approval, Waymo said.
Eventually, Waymo said it will onboard more than 50,000 people on the waitlist to ride in robotaxis in Los Angeles.
During the testing of the Waymo ride service, which began in October of 2023, early riders have taken 15,000 autonomous rides to go shopping, run errands or attend entertainment events and venues, Waymo said.
