Evidence shows that Waymo did in fact launch a commercial, fully autonomous robotaxi service in Los Angeles within a relatively short time after October 2023.

Key timeline:

• In March 2024, the Los Angeles Times reported that Waymo One would begin offering paid, driverless taxi service in Los Angeles, following CPUC approval, initially with a small fleet and a waitlist of riders. (latimes.com)
• Waymo’s own blog later stated that it had begun commercial operations in LA earlier in 2024 and that riders had already taken hundreds of thousands of paid trips there. (waymo.com)
• On November 12, 2024, Waymo announced that Waymo One in Los Angeles was now open to all riders (no waitlist), offering fully autonomous rides 24/7 across roughly 80 square miles from Santa Monica through Hollywood and USC. (forbes.com)
• Waymo’s LA service page, updated in 2025, confirms that it is operating a fully autonomous, publicly available ride-hailing service in Los Angeles, alongside Phoenix and San Francisco. (waymo.com)

Given that the podcast prediction on 7 October 2023 was that Waymo would launch in LA ‘soon’ after already running 24/7 in San Francisco and Phoenix, and full commercial robotaxi operations began in LA within about 5–13 months (well within the implied ‘next few years’), this prediction clearly came true.