Current:Home > MyWaymo’s robotaxis now open to anyone who wants a driverless ride in Los Angeles-InfoLens
Waymo’s robotaxis now open to anyone who wants a driverless ride in Los Angeles
View Date:2025-01-07 02:14:27
Waymo on Tuesday opened its robotaxi service to anyone who wants a ride around Los Angeles, marking another milestone in the evolution of self-driving car technology since the company began as a secret project at Google 15 years ago.
The expansion comes eight months after Waymo began offering rides in Los Angeles to a limited group of passengers chosen from a waiting list that had ballooned to more than 300,000 people. Now, anyone with the Waymo One smartphone app will be able to request a ride around an 80-square-mile (129-square-kilometer) territory spanning the second largest U.S. city.
After Waymo received approval from California regulators to charge for rides 15 months ago, the company initially chose to launch its operations in San Francisco before offering a limited service in Los Angeles.
Before deciding to compete against conventional ride-hailing pioneers Uber and Lyft in California, Waymo unleashed its robotaxis in Phoenix in 2020 and has been steadily extending the reach of its service in that Arizona city ever since.
Driverless rides are proving to be more than just a novelty. Waymo says it now transports more than 50,000 weekly passengers in its robotaxis, a volume of business numbers that helped the company recently raise $5.6 billion from its corporate parent Alphabet and a list of other investors that included venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz and financial management firm T. Rowe Price.
“Our service has matured quickly and our riders are embracing the many benefits of fully autonomous driving,” Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said in a blog post.
Despite its inroads, Waymo is still believed to be losing money. Although Alphabet doesn’t disclose Waymo’s financial results, the robotaxi is a major part of an “Other Bets” division that had suffered an operating loss of $3.3 billion through the first nine months of this year, down from a setback of $4.2 billion at the same time last year.
But Waymo has come a long way since Google began working on self-driving cars in 2009 as part of project “Chauffeur.” Since its 2016 spinoff from Google, Waymo has established itself as the clear leader in a robotaxi industry that’s getting more congested.
Electric auto pioneer Tesla is aiming to launch a rival “Cybercab” service by 2026, although its CEO Elon Musk said he hopes the company can get the required regulatory clearances to operate in Texas and California by next year.
Tesla’s projected timeline for competing against Waymo has been met with skepticism because Musk has made unfulfilled promises about the company’s self-driving car technology for nearly a decade.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s robotaxis have driven more than 20 million fully autonomous miles and provided more than 2 million rides to passengers without encountering a serious accident that resulted in its operations being sidelined.
That safety record is a stark contrast to one of its early rivals, Cruise, a robotaxi service owned by General Motors. Cruise’s California license was suspended last year after one of its driverless cars in San Francisco dragged a jaywalking pedestrian who had been struck by a different car driven by a human.
Cruise is now trying to rebound by joining forces with Uber to make some of its services available next year in U.S. cities that still haven’t been announced. But Waymo also has forged a similar alliance with Uber to dispatch its robotaxi in Atlanta and Austin, Texas next year.
Another robotaxi service, Amazon’s Zoox, is hoping to begin offering driverless rides to the general public in Las Vegas at some point next year before also launching in San Francisco.
veryGood! (75)
Related
- Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had a stroke earlier this month, is expected to make full recovery
- David Moinina Sengeh: The sore problem of prosthetic limbs
- These LSD-based drugs seem to help mice with anxiety and depression — without the trip
- Today’s Climate: June 25, 2010
- Is Veterans Day a federal holiday? Here's what to know for November 11
- Are We Ready for Another COVID Surge?
- Key Tool in EU Clean Energy Boom Will Only Work in U.S. in Local Contexts
- Today’s Climate: June 25, 2010
- 'Red One' review: Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans embark on a joyless search for Santa
- Artificial intelligence could soon diagnose illness based on the sound of your voice
Ranking
- Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas says he was detained in airport over being ‘disoriented’
- Do Hundreds of Other Gas Storage Sites Risk a Methane Leak Like California’s?
- InsideClimate News Wins National Business Journalism Awards
- The Ice Bucket Challenge wasn't just for social media. It helped fund a new ALS drug
- Cold case arrest: Florida man being held in decades-old Massachusetts double murder
- John Hickenlooper on Climate Change: Where the Candidate Stands
- Alaska’s Bering Sea Lost a Third of Its Ice in Just 8 Days
- How Fatherhood Changed Everything for George Clooney
Recommendation
-
School workers accused of giving special needs student with digestive issue hot Takis, other abuse
-
We'll Have 30 Secrets About When Harry Met Sally—And What She's Having
-
Abortion is legal but under threat in Puerto Rico
-
Picking a good health insurance plan can be confusing. Here's what to keep in mind
-
Pedro Pascal's Sister Lux Pascal Debuts Daring Slit on Red Carpet at Gladiator II Premiere
-
Blake Lively's Trainer Wants You to Sleep More and Not Count Calories (Yes, Really)
-
The hidden faces of hunger in America
-
Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts as volcanic glass fragments and ash fall on Big Island