BEFORE YOU LAND
Would you get in a car with nobody driving? | Waymo, Zoox, FSD and Cybercab, decoded
Grabbing a ride in LA used to mean small talk with the driver; now you open the door and the front seat might be empty. This untangles L2 vs. L4, which ones you can actually ride in LA in 2026, how to hail one, and why this city was first to be cool with no driver at all.
Translated from Jasmine’s original Chinese. The illustrated slides are on the interactive reader.
Key points
- Service area: Open the app and check the map before you head out; you can only hail one inside the zone.
- Your first ride · Step by step: No driver, and no tip either.
- Before you get in: Treat it like someone else's living room.
- Pricier than Uber, or cheaper? For the same route, open both apps and compare.
Full text
Terms first | Self-driving comes in levels
L2 is driver assistance, so you're still the driver; Tesla's FSD (Supervised) is L2. L4 means the car drives itself within a mapped area. See the word Supervised, and a human still has to keep watch.
October 2026: what you can actually ride in LA
Right now, the only one with truly nobody in the front seat is Waymo; download the app and hail one. Zoox is still testing in LA, so to ride one you'd go to Vegas; Tesla Robotaxi and Cybercab aren't in LA yet.
Waymo
Started carrying passengers in LA in 2024 and dropped the waitlist that November. When the car arrives, the little screen on the roof lights up your initials; the white Jaguar has a spinning lidar on top, and the boxy one is the new Ojai.
Service area
About 120 square miles: Santa Monica and Venice on the west, out to DTLA, Echo Park and Silver Lake on the east. Open the app and check the map before you head out; you can only hail one inside the zone.
Freeways and LAX
It started using freeways in November 2025, paused nationwide in May 2026 and has been coming back gradually, so go by the app. It still can't drop you right at LAX terminals; request the LAX/Metro Transit Center, then switch to the free shuttle.
Your first ride | Step by step
Enter your destination and check the price first; find the car by the initials on the roof, unlock it in the app, buckle up, and the back-seat screen lets you adjust the AC and play Spotify. When you get out, look back for your phone and jacket. No driver, and no tip either.
Before you get in
Up to 4 people per car, and nobody can sit in the driver's seat; you have to be 18+ to ride alone, and kids under 8 need your own car seat. The car waits about 5 minutes, and there are cameras recording inside. Treat it like someone else's living room.
Pricier than Uber, or cheaper?
Prices float, lock in when you book, and there's no tip. A 2025 San Francisco study's monthly averages: Waymo $20.43, Uber $15.58, with the biggest gap on short rides. For the same route, open both apps and compare.
Zoox | Only in Vegas
Owned by Amazon, with no steering wheel and no front or back seats, like a little room on wheels. It started charging fares in Vegas in August 2026 and can go straight to the airport from September, something Waymo still can't do at LAX.
Tesla FSD (Supervised) | What it is, and what it isn't
Under California's definition it's L2, so whoever's in the driver's seat is the driver, and it's not a taxi either. Since February 2026 it's only available as a $99 monthly subscription; the term Autopilot was retired in the US because it was too easy to misunderstand.
Other names you see in the news
Tesla Robotaxi carries passengers on a limited basis in Texas and Florida, and Cybercab in Austin; Zoox × Uber may come to LA later, date TBD; Nuro and Motional both have people on board, and Cruise has shut down.
When to pick Waymo, and when to call an Uber
For me, it's not that the new beats the old; it's whether, on a given day, I need a driver or I need a little quiet.
Riding with your parents or friends from Taiwan
Hail it on your account and ride along the whole way; before you get in, warn them the steering wheel turns on its own and nothing's broken >_<. Payment works with Visa, Mastercard, JCB, UnionPay and Apple Pay; whether you need a US phone number, it doesn't officially say.
Honest reminder | It's still learning
Waymo has done software recalls over school buses, flooded roads and freeway work zones; the company itself says it has 82% fewer injury crashes than human drivers, so just keep that in mind as you read. It's fine to be curious, and fine to take it slow.
Why LA was first to accept driverless cars
In LA, a car was already a room of your own. Maybe it's not that everyone especially loves tech; maybe this city was already used to being alone in a car.
Two-city mirror
Taipei's self-driving buses aren't expected to start trials on dedicated lanes until 2027, and regular roads only allow L2; in LA, cars with no driver are already parked at your door.
A little bonus from the new book
First ride? Enter JASMINE3HD for a discount on your first trip (the book misprints it as JASMINF3HD; JASMINE3HD is the right one). More ride-hailing tips are in my new book, Los Angeles + Las Vegas (bit.ly/LAguidebookv2).
In this series
An original JSLALALAND field guide by Jasmine Chang (@jslalaland).