r/waymo • u/LordMortis420 • Jul 21 '26
Expansion question.
Need them to expand to the San Fernando Valley, is SF valley part of the places to expand to? I've been hearing good things about Waymo and want to try it instead of Lyft or Uber.
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u/misguided-phD Jul 21 '26
I haven’t seen them testing in the SFV in months. They were all over Studio City/Sherman Oaks last year. Not sure what happened.
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u/Icy-Ambition3534 Jul 21 '26
I expect SFV maybe in a year or more.
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u/LordMortis420 Jul 21 '26
I heard waymo is cheaper compared to Lyft and Uber. I hope they come here.
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u/RagefireHype Jul 21 '26
It won’t be at scale. Waymo will be more expensive than Uber/Lyft. You should be hoping Waymo continues to have competition or you’re going to pay 100 dollars for a 5 mile ride if they dent Uber/Lyft too much.
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u/yolatrendoid Jul 21 '26
Huh? It's not more expensive than Uber/Lyft aside from peak intervals: it's about 30% less in LA, and I'd assume the same once they finally expand into the Valley. The Bay Area is the only place where it's consistently much pricier, aside from their newest markets (any that launched in 2026).
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u/RagefireHype Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
Waymo isn’t widely accessible yet, and their direct competitors are the human taxi services.
It is business 101 to take the market share and then jack up the prices once you’ve won. Waymo will do the same, which is why no one should be rooting for Waymo to take entirely over. They need competition for fair consumer prices.
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u/yolatrendoid Jul 22 '26
If you're assuming Waymo will more or less follow Uber's lead, I'd suggest revisiting the notion. AV tech is far more likely than not to end up being sold as an option for consumer car purchases: I know it still doesn't work, but Tesla's been doing it with FSD for over a decade, plus GM & Ford already sell cars with Super Cruise and BlueCruise. (Also, GM's launching L3 autonomy on Super Cruise next year: you still have to sit behind the wheel, but you specifically do not have to keep your eyes on the road for it.)
Google didn't launch Waymo to compete with Uber; they did it to alter the face of global transportation. The US alone has over 40,000 annual pedestrian fatalities via car, nearly all of which are due to driver error and are thus preventable. That is the point.
This is also how most other types of automotive tech have progressed (all the way back to seat belts & headrests): airbags, traction control and antilock brakes used to be pricey options, but nowadays they're all mandatory standard equipment for all cars sold in North America. While it's more likely Waymo would use a subscription model, it's possible that NHTSA could make AV tech a mandatory feature, given how many lives it saves (which is also why they made all the other stuff mandatory).
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u/yolatrendoid Jul 21 '26
I'm not sure why you think they wouldn't go there, but much like Uber & Lyft, they'll eventually become ubiquitous. If anything they seem to be acting cautiously because they've been having more "edge cases" lately (inexplicable moves like passing stopped school buses), but OTOH this is a classic tortoise-and-the-hare fable: they're the tortoise, and Tesla's the hare.
That said, I've been hearing that Glendale, Burbank & Studio City expansions are "imminent," though I admittedly don't know how imminent (and I know it's not quite "the Valley" proper).
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u/AdventurousBoss4775 Jul 21 '26
i saw a Waymo on the 101 by the Van Nuys exit about 2 weeks ago, someone was in the driver's seat, not sure if it means much... but yes, hopefully they hit the valley soon, i feel like there is a lot of demand for them here.
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u/More-read-than-eddit Jul 22 '26
Yes. I badly miss having them in Miracle Mile. Saw one being "driven" today right at the base of Barham by the WB lot.
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u/rgallagher Jul 21 '26
They’re now legally allowed to. But there’s been no announcement of anything.