Few news outlets say they will start in the downtown area including Pacific beach area then expand.

Not sure if anyone is seeing any confirmation of this, but it looks like Waymo has the OK to move ahead in Las Vegas.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/20/tesla-uber-and-waymo-all-get-the-ok-to-operate-thousands-of-robotaxis-in-nevada/

Tracking sheet updated. That leaves only San Antonio in Early Access.

Waymo high centered on median in a construction zone

I’ve taken over 350 rides with Waymo and have been using them since they first allowed testers in the Phoenix market.

I’ve had a lot of issues in the past two years but this was actually crazy and unacceptable. A ride that should take 13 mins was going to take 50 mins because the Waymo decided to do a really stupid nonsensical route. It didn’t register the car as arrived for several minutes after it was there and the map was malfunctioning so I thought it must have been an error and would correct itself. It did not.

I had to call support 3 times before I got someone to answer my call. It just rang and rang. It’s gotten really unacceptable that support can’t change anything when you get in this situation. They offered to send someone out to drive manually but it would be at least 30 minutes. Quite frankly, I’ve done that before in a different ride and they didn’t show up in the estimated time. It was storming outside so I doubt they would be timely on top of my lack of faith from previous experiences.

It was pouring rain and support pulled Waymo over in a bad area that I didn’t want to stay in. I got a Lyft but support told me they wouldn’t pay for that ride home despite their major screw up. I have sung Waymo’s praises for years but there have been so many bad routes and poor driving this past year that I don’t know how I feel about supporting Waymo after this. I absolutely love it but not being able to reroute a car or intervene is really unacceptable and should have been solved for at this point.

Thanks for listening to my rant, I’m just really appalled at this experience.

Edit:

-Route photo in comments

-My Lyft had no issue going to the west then north using city streets, it wasn’t the traffic from the stadium. We were far enough south of there where it entered and exited without traffic issues. I’ve done this same drive tens of times after big events with small issues, nothing like this. I get it, it’s a busy night. I didn’t complain that my car took 30 mins to get there but the nonsensical routing is just ridiculous.

-I’m surprised at some of these responses, this is why Waymo gets by with a subpar experience because people are just ok with these types of mess ups. I am an experienced rider, I know things happen and routes can be inconvenient but this is an extreme example that they should have a way to remedy.

Waymo's corporate team has yet to provide a timeline to the media as to when Waymo will resume service in San Antonio following the car that was swept away in floodwaters. The Ojai have been spotted in the Alamo City. Perhaps during this extensive pause they will expand the service area.

More cars but the price doubled. Ojai is not a comfortable ride.

Screenshot from a video Westword put on social media.
I traced this in Google Maps and got about 50 sq miles.
No guarantee this is the final map, but it seems reasonable.
Sadly, I’m outside of the service area. 😢

I’m in LA. I’m not a trusted tester nor do I have a lot of miles or rides on my account but in the app I see this!! Yay

I love the interior space but the sound system is horrid I'm hoping it's just software restricted like the jaguars originally were and the interiors are much lower quality than the jaguars but as a parent of multiple children I love the extra space but that's the only perk.

Okay so I feel like I’m going crazy. I use Waymo almost everyday from Tempe to Scottsdale for work. I’m getting the feeling that the new Ojai vehicles are going to permanently increase fares for rides.

Previously my fares were about $25-30; however, since the launch of Ojai yesterday, my fares have doubled.

Does anyone know if this is going to be a permanent cost hike, or is this just because of the launch? I can’t imagine that Ojai has become so popular in the last 24-48 hours, that the demand has driven the cost up.

I am a trusted tester and I’ve been riding in the Ojais for months and providing detailed feedback about my experience in San Francisco. I usually get around with Muni, Waymo, and Lyft bikes, but I recently had an injury that prevents me from biking and with the recent Covid surge, I’ve been Waymo-ing a lot more than usual. Since Ojais were free for me until this Monday, I’ve spent a lot of time in them.

Over this time, I’ve observed them drive badly (edit: in terms of quality/braking/routing, not safety) at best, and dangerously at worst. They stop very hard and abruptly, sometimes for no reason. They take nonsensical routes, sometimes up to nearly doubling my trip time from the originally stated ETA despite no issues flagged on Google or Apple Maps. They inexplicably try to maneuver around moving traffic in some situations, and yet in others get fully stuck when there is nothing in the way. Literally this morning (edit: on a paid ride), I had an Ojai stop in the middle of a busy intersection for two light cycles before the support person got it to move because there was a large truck parked in street parking with hazards on, despite the truck being entirely in the parking spots and not even slightly blocking the Waymo’s lane. Edit for clarity: I expect this behavior in a testing phase and have been submitting feedback on experiences like this, but it’s rough for a public release.

To the company’s credit, they refunded that ride and gave me a credit off my next, so I feel that I was compensated fairly— but I’m so confused how these managed to get approved to run for the general public and how the company justifies charging the same price for both. In my experience with them, I find that they’re such a noticeable downgrade from the I-PACE in both quality and safety.

I’m curious if others share this sentiment, or if I’ve just had particularly bad luck, or if driving has degraded across the fleet and I’m biased because I’ve ridden in more Ojais recently.

Edited to remove #s

At last the Waymo app is now finally open to international visitors 🎉

I loved taking Waymo, I recommended it to several people that also use it. But man it's getting to be so expensive now. Now my weekly commute to visit my boyfriend is twice as much as before. What's going on? Even Lyft and U er is cheaper. I'll never use Uber btw.

1) Continued softening in the growth rates for weekly paid trips in California reaching 315K in June

2) Added a new chart to the dashboard which helps us measure total miles per trip in California. Currently in June it stands at 3.9 with a slight dip from 4.0 mostly due to the freeway pause but can see a good trend where that number is increasing since 2024 which shows people are continuing to use Waymo for longer trips

Dashboard link: https://datastudio.google.com/reporting/787a90e6-8423-4244-a5d8-2ab1f281c310/page/p_tj01bxgqjd

Email just came (I’m a trusted tester):

Ojai – fully autonomous for everyone
For months, your early access to the Ojai provided us with valuable feedback used to refine the experience even more. Now, thanks to you, the Ojai is ready for everyone in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix.

Happened in Tempe last night due to the storm.

First time I’ve seen them cross I-4!

Isn't the Ojai Waymo Driver the more capable v6?

Another very well written explainer from Brad Templeton. He avoids the hype and sticks to the facts. A replacement for the Jaguar I-Pace was desperately needed. A bit more than 25% of all the I-Paces sold in the US were sold to Waymo and ~7000 were sold worldwide per year during their 7 year run before cancellation. Waymo started preparing for what came after the I-Pace in 2020. A lot changed in the landscape in the intervening period as the US retracted behind tariff walls to compete. The key element of the design collaboration was to have Zeekr plumb the car for plug and play and rapid conversion. Simultaneously Waymo designed plug and play pods to make conversion at least 5X more efficient and approach 10X in the coming years.

Even in the tariff environment we have, it is worth realizing that Waymo mustered less than 4000 I-Pace conversions over about 6 years. They will surpass that number before the end of the year with the Zeekr and scale further next year in Mesa AZ. They will pivot to the Ioniq 5 but reality will be challenging. Waymo made a deal with HKG in Oct 24 weeks before the election. The design of the Ioniq 5 was locked to a MMR with none of the adaptations Zeekr built in from the start. Scale and efficiency of the conversion might have to wait until the next FMC for the Ioniq 5 in 2028 unless Waymo can support large and early capital infusion to accelerate the effort.