Waymo extends Los Angeles driverless rides to Torrance

Waymo has extended its driverless ride-hailing service south along the Los Angeles coast to Torrance, enlarging its operating map through Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach. The updated service area is available to view in the Waymo app.

The South Bay move was one part of an expansion announced across five markets, which added nearly 250 square miles in total over the following week. Los Angeles was included alongside Nashville, Orlando, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area, but Waymo did not disclose how much of the additional territory was assigned to each market or how many vehicles it was adding for the expansion.

The company’s Los Angeles map had previously run from Santa Monica to Echo Park and as far south as Inglewood. Its service still did not include trips to or from Los Angeles International Airport, even though Waymo serves airports in some other cities.

Waymo began carrying waitlisted Los Angeles passengers in March 2024 and opened the service to all riders that November. The company now says it operates in 15 U.S. metropolitan areas and provides more than 500,000 paid rides each week.

California regulators had already authorized a far broader potential expansion in August. The California Public Utilities Commission approved operations across 18 counties, including new areas in Southern California, and said the authorization could more than triple Waymo’s service area in regions surrounding Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Waymo reported 186 crashes in Los Angeles County in 2026, compared with 219 in 2025 and 69 in 2024, according to Los Angeles Times reporting published Oct. 5. More than 80% of the 2026 incidents caused no apparent injuries, while fewer than 1% involved a suspected serious injury.

Waymo said its crash rate had fallen from about 57 crashes per million miles in 2023 to fewer than six per million miles in 2026. Across 67 million miles driven in Los Angeles, it reported no crashes resulting in serious or fatal injuries, compared with 11 serious-injury crashes it estimated human drivers would have had over the same distance.