Waymo, a self-driving taxi service, arrived at the Shrine Auditorium for its last stop in its Southern California pop-up tour to advertise its services on Monday.
Waymo, originally named Google Self Driving Car, is owned by Alphabet under Google. It has made strides in becoming a taxi service competitor against the likes of Uber and Lyft. California regulators gave Waymo the green light to drive on highways and continue operations in Los Angeles on Friday.
The decision was protested by some local leaders in Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT), saying that expansion is unjustifiable without more local oversight.
Prahkar Bhatnagar, a first-year graduate student studying quantum information science who attended the pop-up event, said that it was exciting to see the company continue to make progress.
“From a technological perspective, there are a lot of challenges, but I’m happy to see them tackle those,” Bhatnagar said. “They’re not going to get everything right the first time and no one expects them to.”
In order to use Waymo, Los Angeles residents must join a waitlist, but the Shrine pop-up event provided attendees with a free week of access to fully autonomous rides around the Los Angeles area.
The incentive pulled in nearby college students who were curious to test the service out. In December, Waymo hosted a similar event at UCLA, targeting the college-age demographic.
Waymo began offering autonomous rides through pop-ups in October, starting in Santa Monica and expanding to other parts of Los Angeles. Their vehicles are electric Jaguar SUVs lined with cameras along the sides with a large, spinning camera on the roof of the car.
“I just kept seeing their cars around the USC campus, but I didn’t know much about it,” said Mia McCoobery, a senior studying English. “And then [my friend] told me that they were having a pop-up event, and I wanted a free week of rides.”
Visitors arrived at a white corner booth that housed a physical ticket printer for the free rides. They received free shirts and tote bags, and the event had an area with brochures for more information.
Some people are concerned about safety in light of an accident that occurred in Phoenix, when two empty Waymo vehicles made contact with a pickup truck being towed. JD Charisma, a Waymo brand ambassador at the pop-up event Monday, said that he would attest to the service’s reliability.
“I know that it’s not gonna break any speed limit rules and make any human errors,” he said. “So I think it’s one of the safest experiences that you could have in a vehicle.”
Students who had heard about Waymo before saw the event as an opportunity to explore more of the service.
“I thought it was really cool,” said Miguel Silva, a senior studying business. “I looked into their events because I knew they were in LA and was trying to go to one of the pop-ups. Luckily, they were at the Shrine.”
Visitors who could not make it to the event can sign up for the waitlist online.
Shruthi Narayanan contributed to this story.