Waymo’s driverless rides now reach LA’s South Bay

On November 3, 2026, Waymo expanded its Los Angeles driverless service into the South Bay. Riders can now travel to Torrance, El Segundo and Manhattan Beach, bringing the Los Angeles service area to about 210 square miles, the Los Angeles Times reported. Rides to and from Los Angeles International Airport still aren’t available, and Waymo says it is in discussions with airport officials.

The South Bay addition is part of a rollout Waymo announced on October 27, adding nearly 250 square miles of service across Los Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area.

In early 2025, I was in California recording a commercial with Xandar Kardian, and Waymos were all around, so I took one. What stayed with me wasn’t the ride itself. It was what it could enable for people with disabilities, whether they live at home or in more traditional settings, even in a major metropolitan area. Learning to travel on the metro, buses and trains can take years, and for some people a decade. What a person is really learning it for is independence. A driverless car could let someone skip over some of those steps and get to the independent part: getting where they are trying to go. It has to be affordable, but one step at a time.

Waymo isn’t offering driverless rides in the DMV yet. Its cars are already on the road in D.C., testing with drivers behind the wheel, while the D.C. Council weighs a bill that would allow commercial robotaxis. I can’t wait to start teaching people with disabilities in the DMV how to use Waymo, and how we can connect it with remote supports.

Every new neighborhood on the map is a trip someone can take now that they couldn’t take before. The airport gap is a reminder that a ride only builds independence when it goes where a person needs to go.

Tech Equity

The question I always ask is what a technology enables a human being to do. For someone who has spent years working toward traveling on their own, a ride that comes when called and goes where they need to go could be a real step toward independence. The work ahead is making sure that step is affordable, taught well, and connected to the supports people already rely on.

Sources: Los Angeles Times, November 3, 2026; Waymo announcement, October 27, 2026; The Washington Post, October 27, 2026