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The company is removing the waitlist for its self-driving service in Los Angeles.
Waymo, which is owned by Alphabet, announced yesterday (12 November) that its self-driving robotaxi service is now available to all in Los Angeles (LA).
This is a notable move for the company, as the population of LA is made up of more than 3.8m people, and 300,000 of the city’s residents had been on Waymo’s waitlist. The company first made the move to LA back in March of this year, when it made the ride-hailing service available to “select members of the public”.
This makes LA the third and largest US city where Waymo’s robotaxi service is now fully available, following the cities of Phoenix and San Francisco. In August, Waymo announced that it was trialling robotaxis on San Francisco freeways.
Tekedra Mawakana, co-CEO of Waymo, commented on the latest expansion: “Our service has matured quickly and our riders are embracing the many benefits of fully autonomous driving.
“We’re so grateful to all of our first riders in LA, and we can’t wait to serve more riders soon.”
Waymo has also announced on its official website that there are plans for the company to expand its services to the US cities of Austin and Atlanta.
And back in July, the company received a huge boost when it was announced that Alphabet (which also owns the search engine Google) would spend an additional $5bn on it over the next few years.
The announcement coincided with the release of a new study on Monday (11 November) conducted by Waymo in partnership with dashcam company Nexar, where hundreds of road accidents involving vulnerable road users were reconstructed to better understand the safety risks associated with these road users and inform Waymo’s driving.
While self-driving taxis appear to be on the rise – Fortune Business Insights has said that this specific market is projected to reach a global value of around $118.61bn by the year 2031 – the industry has been no stranger to controversy. In particular, self-driving car company Cruise experienced a considerable amount of turmoil last year after a number of road incidents – including an occasion where one of the company’s automated taxis struck and pinned down a pedestrian.
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