Waymo officially launches driverless cars in LA
LOS ANGELES - Robotaxies are finally hitting the streets of Los Angeles.
On Thursday, Google spinoff Waymo started offering free rides to some of the roughly 50,000 people who signed up for its driverless ride-hailing service.
For now, Waymo’s free rides in LA will cover a 63-square-mile area spanning from Santa Monica to downtown.
But many people are still skeptical about Waymo's functions.
"I'm not sure the technology is 100% there. I had an incident where I was commuting into work," said one person. He went on to explain that the driverless car suddenly stopped in the middle of the intersection and didn't move for approximately two minutes.
The worst fears about robotaxis were realized in San Francisco last October when a vehicle operated by Cruise, a driverless ride-hailing service owned by General Motors, dragged a pedestrian who was hit by another car operated by a human for 20 feet while traveling at roughly 7 mph before coming to a stop. The incident resulted in California regulators suspending Cruise’s state license and triggered a massive shakeup at that service.
Another incident included the fire department.
"We've had two vehicles actually stop dead in front of fire engines trying to come out the door of their fire stations to go on emergency calls and they had to cancel themselves and get another engine from further away," said San Francisco Fire Department Chief Jeanine Nicholson.
Waymo’s robotaxis so far haven’t been involved in any major accidents.
Waymo is launching operations in Los Angeles two weeks after the California Public Utilities Commission approved the expansion in a decision that once again overrode the concerns of city transportation officials about robotaxis coming to sudden stops that block roads and the potential for driverless vehicles to malfunction in more serious ways that could jeopardize lives.
Although Waymo isn’t charging for rides in its robotaxis in Los Angeles to start, the company said in a blog post announcing the expansion that it will eventually collect fares from passengers there too.
Waymo also hopes to begin commercial operations in Austin, Texas, later this year, a goal that makes its robotaxi service available in four major U.S. cities 15 years after it began as a secret project within Google. Waymo’s robotaxis have been charging for rides in Phoenix since 2020.