Waymo will begin offering its fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Los Angeles and Austin, Texas. Starting Thursday, Waymo will provide rides in Los Angeles, following a four-month pilot program. The company plans to start offering its robotaxi service later this year in Austin, where it began testing last week.

What You Need To Know

  • Waymo said it will expand its fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Los Angeles and Austin, Texas

  • The service will launch in Los Angeles Thursday for people on the company's waitlist

  • The Alphabet subsidiary began testing its service with employees in Austin, Texas, last week and will roll out rides to the general public later this year

  • Waymo already operates its robotaxi service in San Francisco and Phoenix

“Once an unimaginable future, autonomous driving is now a real-world way of getting around for tens of thousands of people each week,” Waymo Co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said during the SXSW conference Wednesday. “After achieving key milestones in each city, we’re so excited to bring the safety, comfort and delight of our Waymo One service to more people in Los Angeles and Austin this year.”

Waymo began piloting its robotaxi service in select Los Angeles neighborhoods last October, providing mover than 15,000 fully autonomous rides in an electric Jaguar I-PACE that was available in Santa Monica, Century City, West Hollywood, Mid City, Koreatown and downtown Los Angeles.

On Thursday, it will offer rides in roughly the same 63-square-mile area running from Santa Monica to downtown. Over time, Waymo plans to expand its service footprint.

The LA rides will be free at first and will transition to a paid service over the coming weeks, the company said in a statement on its website. Waymo plans to eventually sign up 50,000 riders in the LA area from its waitlist.

Waymo began testing its robotaxi service with its employees in Austin last week over a 43-square-mile area covering downtown, Barton Hills, Riverside, East Austin and Hyde Park. It will open rides to the general public later this year.

Waymo’s expansion announcement comes one month after the company recalled the software in its self-driving vehicles after two of its cars ran into a tow truck in Phoenix in December. It has since updated all the software in its fleet of 700 self-driving cars.

The Alphabet subsidiary is one of three companies in the state of California that has a permit to deploy autonomous vehicles without a human safety driver behind the wheel to take over in case of emergencies.

Waymo currently operates a driverless ride hail in Phoenix and in San Francisco. Its vehicles have collectively driven more than 10 million miles and conducted over 1 million trips.