Waymo Robotaxis Now Available to all Riders in LA

Waymo has terminated a waitlist that had expanded to 300,000 individuals by extending its robotaxi service to all residents of Los Angeles

Beginning Tuesday, the Alphabet-backed company will allow individuals to obtain the Waymo One app to request a ride within its service area, which spans approximately 80 square miles in Los Angeles County.

Since 2019, Waymo has maintained a presence in Los Angeles, making periodic visits to map neighborhoods such as Miracle Mile, Koreatown, Santa Monica, Westwood, and West Hollywood.

The company announced in 2022 that Los Angeles would be one of its next commercial markets, following Phoenix and San Francisco.

Nevertheless, Waymo was unable to promptly activate that commercial switch. The company was granted the final permits necessary by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to operate a commercial service in San Francisco in August 2023.

Waymo received approval from the CPUC in March 2024 to operate a commercial robotaxi service in Los Angeles and to expand its territory in the Bay Area to include the San Francisco Peninsula and San Francisco freeways. In June, Waymo eliminated the waitlist for passengers in San Francisco.

Waymo’s most recent expansion occurred just one week after the company disclosed that it had secured $5.6 billion in a Series C funding round, which was headed by its parent company, Alphabet.

Andreessen Horowitz, Silver Lake, Fidelity, Tiger Global, Perry Creek, and T. Rowe Price all participated in the round. Waymo had previously declined to disclose the amount of money that each investor had contributed.

Bloomberg News reports that the investment has increased Waymo’s aggregate valuation to over $45 billion. Alphabet had previously disclosed in July that it was making an additional $5 billion commitment to Waymo, but it did not provide additional information regarding the “multi-year” commitment.