The autonomous ride-hailng company expands operations from a waiting list of prospective passengers, covering an 80 square-mile area of Los Angeles.

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

Aerial view of Alphabet’s Waymo self-driving car fleet storage facility in the Bayview Hunter’s Point district. Photo: Getty Images.

Waymo on Tuesday opened its robotaxi service to anyone who wants a ride around Los Angeles, marking another milestone in the evolution of self-driving car technology since the company began as a secret project at Google 15 years ago.

The expansion comes eight months after Waymo began offering rides in Los Angeles to a limited group of passengers chosen from a waiting list that had ballooned to more than 300,000 people. Now, anyone with the Waymo One smartphone app will be able to request a ride around an 80-square-mile territory spanning the second largest U.S. city.

After Waymo received approval from California regulators to charge for rides 15 months ago, the company initially chose to launch its........

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