Waymo autonomous taxis are now available to everyone in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES: Everyone in Los Angeles can now enjoy rides in Waymo's autonomous taxis, a service that will gradually be extended to all the city's neighborhoods. This opens up unprecedented prospects for the expansion of these self-driving cabs.

Since late 2023, Waymo has been testing out its fully autonomous vehicles in certain areas of Los Angeles, including Santa Monica. The company already claims several hundred thousand paid trips across the city, without any notable incident, which is now encouraging the firm to expand its service to everyone.

According to Waymo, 98% of users surveyed were satisfied with the service, and 96% found it very useful, citing a strong sense of comfort and safety.

From now on, Waymo One is accessible to everyone in LA, without having to go through a waiting list. From the dedicated mobile app, anyone in Los Angeles can now order a ride in a driverless cab.

Initially, an area of 200 sq km will be covered, including Hollywood, Chinatown, Westwood and Marina del Rey. But this is just the beginning, as the service will gradually spread throughout the city.

However, Waymo won't be offering connections between downtown Los Angeles and Los Angeles International Airport just yet, an ideal route for this type of service. Similarly, Waymo still won't operate on the various highways that crisscross the City of Angels.

In announcing this news, Waymo has taken the opportunity to highlight its collaboration with local community partners such as She is Hope, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering and assisting single mothers in Los Angeles. Note that Waymo will also be the official ride-hail partner of the Los Angeles Auto Show, which runs from Nov 22 to Dec 1.

By widening its scope and opening up its service to all, Waymo is aiming to expand its operations even further, with the company already claiming nearly 150,000 cumulative rides each week across San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles.

New York could follow suit, as the mayor has given the go-ahead for the deployment of the first autonomous cabs in his city, albeit subject to certain conditions, starting with the presence of an emergency driver on board.

GM's subsidiary Cruise, Waymo's long-standing competitor, has recently returned to California's roads in the San Francisco suburbs, after being banned for a year following a series of road traffic accidents that led to the suspension of its activities.

The company's return, however, remains under the watchful eye of local authorities. Another company, Aurora, is also operating its own autonomous cabs in several US cities.