Waymo is ditching its waitlist in Los Angeles, much like it did before in Phoenix and San Francisco, making its fully autonomous vehicles available to anyone who downloads the company’s Waymo One app.
Still, it was a sign of the company’s growing confidence in its technology, especially after securing a record $5.6 billion investment round, led by its parent company, Alphabet, to help fund its next phase of growth. Waymo recently said it was conducting 150,000 paid trips and driving over 1 million fully autonomous miles every week.
Of course, Waymo is now in direct competition with human-powered transportation services like Uber and Lyft, both of which operate without any pesky geographic restrictions. Those services are often cheaper than Waymo’s vehicles, and customers can expect shorter wait times for rides.
Also, Waymo doesn’t provide airport trips to LAX, nor does it allow its vehicles to travel on highways yet. In a city as reliant on private autos as Los Angeles, it remains to be seen how useful Angelinos will find Waymo without being able to travel on the highway. The company hasn’t said when it hopes to eventually expand service to include airport and highway trips.
But Waymo has novelty on its side — and its customers often give it high marks for the ability to customize their rides, such as playing their own music and setting the temperature to their liking.
“Now is an exciting time to welcome everyone in Los Angeles along for the ride,” Tekedra Mawakana, co-CEO of Waymo, said in a statement. “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.”
