Los Angeles: Waymo's robotaxi service for everyone

The robot cab service from US start-up Waymo in Los Angeles in the US state of California is now available around the clock for anyone who wants a driverless ride. The Alphabet subsidiary made the announcement in a blog post on Tuesday.

Eight months ago, Waymo began offering rides in Los Angeles to a limited group of customers after some hacking by the authorities. The passengers were selected from a waiting list. This has recently grown to more than 300,000 people. In future, however, anyone who has installed the Waymo One app will be able to request a ride in an area of 129 square kilometers in the US West Coast metropolis. According to Waymo, it plans to expand the service area to cover larger parts of the city in the future. Currently, the company already carries out more than 150,000 trips per week with its robotaxis. "Our service has matured quickly and our drivers are embracing the many benefits of fully autonomous driving," Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said in the blog post.

Traffic violations and other incidents

The Alphabet subsidiary initially launched its round-the-clock robotaxi service 15 months ago in San Francisco. However, tensions soon arose there because of the autonomous vehicles. These had been approved by the relevant federal authority in the face of opposition from the city authorities. San Francisco filed a lawsuit against this in January.

There have also been repeated incidents in the past. At the beginning of February, a Waymo vehicle hit a cyclist, who was slightly injured. Just a few days later, the dispute reached a new level: a crowd of people damaged and graffitied an empty Waymo robot cab in the middle of a busy street in San Francisco, ultimately setting it on fire to applause.

Aiming for further expansion

The events described above probably contributed to the fact that Waymo's application to expand its robotaxi operations to Los Angeles County was initially halted by the regulatory authorities. The company was later granted a permit after all. But the reports of accidents and breakdowns did not stop there. Numerous incidents involving the autonomous driving of Waymo cars on the roads led to an official investigation in May. This was expanded shortly afterwards. The reason for this was recent road safety violations, such as driving in the lane of oncoming traffic, collisions with parked cars and disregarding traffic regulations. Following an accident, the company launched a voluntary recall of the automated driving system software in mid-June.

However, none of this has dampened the company's success. In the summer, Waymo began testing driverless robot cabs on freeways in San Francisco. The start-up then raised 5.6 billion US dollars in fresh capital in a financing round in October. Waymo intends to use the new money to expand into other cities. So far, Waymo is mainly active in San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles, while in Austin and Atlanta the company is cooperating with Uber. In the future, the company also wants to bring its autonomous cabs to the streets of Washington, D.C. and New York.

(akn)