‘Waymo One Tour’ lets you take an autonomous ride in Los Angeles [U]

Abner Li | Jan 24 2024 - 9:00 am PT

Ahead of a wider launch, a Waymo One Tour will let people in Los Angeles “score early access tickets to take fully autonomous Waymo One rides.”

Update 1/24/24: Koreatown, Waymo’s fifth stop, is now live until February 4:

If you’d like to secure a ticket in person, join our mini pop up on 1/24 outside the Silver Lake Erewhon from 12 PM-4 PM.

Update 1/8/24: The Waymo One Tour is now live in Mid City until January 23:

Update 12/14/23: The Waymo One Tour is coming to West Hollywood on December 17. On Sunday, Waymo is hosting a pop-up event to distribute tickets at the Originals Farmers Market by the Clock Tower. You can also sign up for access via the online waitlist, while Waymo is also taking to social media.

Update 11/20: The Waymo One Tour is now live in Century City, with the Alphabet company hosting a pop-up event today from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Westfield Century City (in the Atrium).

For Santa Monica, Waymo distributed over 1,000 early access tickets that work for one week and “served thousands of trips” in its first month, with 80% of people taking multiple rides. More than a thousand of those trips were to dine out and shop, while 27% of all trips took place between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Passengers gave Waymo One a 4.69-star rating on average.

Original 9/20: “Waymo One” is what the Alphabet (Google’s parent company) division calls its ride-hailing service. Meant to compete with the likes of Lyft and Uber, it’s already available in Phoenix and San Francisco. Los Angeles is next, with Austin after that.

To test the service, Waymo will let Los Angeles residents (and visitors) in six neighborhoods experience the driverless vehicle, an electric Jaguar I-Pace. It starts in a service area that covers Santa Monica, with selected people getting free rides that are “available around the clock” for several weeks. Waymo One will then move to Century City and then keep on going until Downtown LA.

Santa Monica: October 11 to November 18
Century City: November 20 to December 17
West Hollywood: December 17 to January 7
Mid City: January 8 to January 23
Koreatown: January 24 to February 8
Downtown LA: February 9 to March 3

The Waymo One Tour is using a ticketing system that adds to the concert-esque nature of this Los Angeles test. You can earn tickets for one of the six service areas by joining the waitlist, which is available online or in the Waymo One mobile app for Android and iOS.

The alternative is attending a pop-up “in local spots throughout LA” to get the early access tickets:

…in addition to special tour merch while supplies last. Attendees will also get the chance to learn more about Waymo and ask our brand ambassadors any questions they have about our service.