Local News

Driverless vehicles coming to Los Angeles freeways

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) — Robotaxis are taking a big step for any young driver: They’re taking on Los Angeles freeways.

Waymo vehicles, which have already been operating in Los Angeles, will now drive the freeways as well, though the service will be limited to employees of the company at first, Waymo announced on X, formerly Twitter.

The company told KTLA that four freeways will be part of the initial rollout: the 10, 110, 405 and 90.

In its social media post, the company included a short video showing how using freeways can cut the time it takes to drive from Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles in half.

The autonomous nature of the vehicles has drawn its share of praise and criticism.

Angeleno Thomas Nagano told KTLA that “they’re a lot safer than anything else on the road because they have three different methods of identifying problems on the road,” referencing the cars’ use of cameras, sensors and radar.

Others, like Chris Korn of Venice Beach, said they still don’t feel comfortable about the idea of being in a car without a human driver.

“I still don’t trust the technology. It’s a little more questionable without that driver in the car,” he said.

CHP Officer Roberto Gomez told KTLA’s Carlos Herrera that drivers should treat Waymo vehicles as just another car, and they should stop if there happens to be a collision. Waymo should then contact the other driver through the vehicle.

“It’s just like a regular crash. Something happens and it’s staying on scene and resolving whatever the incident [is] that occurred,” he said.

Some in Los Angeles haven’t been so calm, even going so far as to trash a Waymo vehicle.

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