My daughters discovered Waymo before I did. Our ten-year-old came home from a friend’s birthday party last year talking about “the car without a driver” with the kind of intensity she usually reserves for new dessert discoveries. I thought she was exaggerating. She was not.
Since then we have taken both Waymo and Uber around Los Angeles enough times to have real opinions about both. I am a nurse. I think about safety differently than the average person. I also think about efficiency and cost because we are a family of four in Los Angeles and rideshare trips add up fast. Here is what I actually think after using both services regularly.
The Waymo Experience
The first time I got into a Waymo by myself, I sat in the back seat and waited for something to feel wrong. Nothing did. The car pulled into traffic smoothly, navigated a left turn at a busy intersection with no drama, and delivered me to my destination without incident. The app told me exactly where it was, the interior was clean and quiet, and I did not have to make small talk with anyone.
That last part matters more than I expected. After a twelve-hour nursing shift, the absence of a social obligation in my Waymo is genuinely restorative. I can decompress in silence. It sounds small. It is not small.
With the girls, Waymo is a complete novelty every single time. Madeline narrates everything the car does. Charlotte asks questions I cannot answer about how it sees other cars. They are engaged and delighted for the entire ride in a way they are never engaged and delighted in a regular Uber. If you have curious kids, a Waymo trip is genuinely worth doing at least once just for that experience.
The limitations: Waymo’s service area in LA is still limited. We are in the 90049 zip code and it covers our neighborhood and most of the Westside — Santa Monica, Brentwood, Westwood, Beverly Hills — but if we need to go to Pasadena or the Valley for a family event, Waymo is not an option yet. The app is also less intuitive than Uber’s when something goes wrong. Once, the car stopped two blocks from our destination for reasons the app did not explain. I sat there for three minutes before it moved again. Not a crisis, but slightly unnerving.
The Uber Experience
Uber goes everywhere. That is its core advantage and it is not a small one. Los Angeles is enormous and Waymo covers a fraction of it. For anything outside the Westside, Uber is the answer.
The driver experience varies considerably. We have had excellent Uber drivers — knowledgeable about traffic, genuinely kind, interesting to talk to. We have also had drivers who were clearly navigating by feel in unfamiliar areas, which in LA traffic is its own kind of stress. With kids in the car, the driver’s skill and attention matter in a way I cannot entirely ignore, even with seatbelts.
Uber is faster to book in most cases, has more vehicles available, and is generally cheaper for standard trips. The surge pricing during peak hours can be significant — I have paid $45 for what is usually a $22 ride during a Friday evening surge, which stings.
Cost Comparison From Our Actual Rides
Over the last few months, our average Waymo trip from our neighborhood to Santa Monica is between $18 and $26. The same Uber ride runs $16 to $24 at normal times and up to $40 during surge. They are roughly comparable in cost for our most common routes, which surprised me — I expected Waymo to be significantly more expensive.
For airport runs, Uber still wins on coverage and price. Waymo does not serve LAX at the time of this writing, which is a significant gap for a family that travels.
Which One We Actually Use
When Waymo is available for where we are going, and I am tired, I use Waymo. The quiet is worth it. When we have the girls and I want them to have an interesting experience, Waymo. When we need to go somewhere outside the service area, or when pricing is better, Uber.
The honest answer is that both exist in our lives and we do not feel strongly loyal to either. What I do feel is that the Waymo technology is genuinely impressive in a way that still catches me off guard sometimes — watching it merge onto the 10 freeway with calm precision while I sit in the back drinking coffee is a specific kind of surreal that has not worn off yet. Whether it becomes our primary option depends entirely on how fast they expand coverage across the rest of LA. The Westside is a start. But this city is vast, and we need to get to all of it.
