Literally Every Waymo Depot in LA

Before today, ourselves and others have posted little snippets of information and footage about Waymo depots we've found on various platforms. We're always continually on the hunt for depots in LA, so it's added up over time. Today, we're going to lay it out for you in a handy-dandy list complete with everything we know about each location, along with pictures and videos.

A quick disclaimer before we begin - it's probably a good idea to steer clear of these places. Yes, they're insanely cool (if you're AV nerds like us), but please do not attempt to gain entry or trespass on Waymo and their partners' property. If you do swing by, keep your distance, stay off their property, and don't disrupt operations. The people who work there are just trying to do their jobs, which is keeping our rides top quality. We respect that immensely, and you should too.

All of the footage we collected was created whilst on public property (mainly the sidewalk outside), and at a far enough distance to stay out of the way.

Here's our complete map of all the Waymo depots we know about in Los Angeles:

Notice anything? We did too. The entire downtown area or really anything East of Culver City is a ghost town. This goes a long way towards explaining why wait times there aren't as great. Are there depots we don't know about? It's a possibility. We've searched far and wide and come up empty handed. If you know of one, please let us know in the comments.

Another thing to note is that LA has very little space for large industrial areas (at least inside the Waymo service area). We think that's why we're seeing lots of small depots instead of the huge warehouses and lots we're used to seeing in other cities, like San Francisco and Phoenix.

Let's take a look at each depot individually.

"The Main" Depot

The Rundown

• 8 chargers (outside, more possible inside)
• Warehouse space
• Roof parking area
• Deep cleaning

This was the very first depot in LA, going back to the early tour days. Before the other depots came online, all cars were stopping here for maintenance at some point or another. There looks to be two (or one with two entrances?) warehouses, which could have more charging inside, or a maintenance facility. The roof parking area appears to store employee vehicles and a few broken Waymo cars.

Whilst we do have some pictures of this depot, the best angles come from two videos. Here's our video covering it:

And JJRicks' dedicated video filmed more recently, which includes some impressive drone shots he found:

"CVS Roof" Depot

The Rundown

• 8 chargers
• Light cleaning

This one is quite literally on top of a CVS, meaning the cars have to navigate an incredibly steep ramp to get here. It's a public parking area with other businesses, except Waymo has claimed a corner for charging and light cleaning. The chargers are EVgo branded, and are exclusively available to Waymo. There are public ones available in the parking area in front of the store, on ground level.

Here is the part of one of our videos where we covered it:

And a cool picture taken at night!

"Random Parking Lot" Depot

The Rundown

• 6 chargers
• Light cleaning

Surprisingly close to the main depot, this one, as the title suggests, is located in a random parking lot opposite an apartment building. A few staff are onsite plugging in and cleaning the cars. The cars also seem to park in the empty bays when waiting to be charged, or for their next ride. Watch a video of this below:

"Near LAX and SoFi" Terawatt Depot

The Rundown

• Too many chargers to count through the fence
• Light cleaning, possibly deep cleaning

This one is absolutely huge, and is a purpose built brand new facility owned and operated by Terawatt, who offer EV fleet charging and maintenance services to anyone who wants it, but right now it seems to be just Waymo at this location. Speaking of location, this depot has excellent positioning just minutes away from both the LAX Airport and SoFi Stadium.

This depot is also far outside of the normal LA service area. After following one of the vehicles after it left the depot, we found it to be taking a random route around the Inglewood area, and not return to the usual service area as we anticipated. This could be a sign of imminent future expansion.

Here is our video covering the depot:

And here is all the footage we've collected:

That concludes our list! Again, please do let us know in the comments if you find any other depots in LA that we didn't include here. And to finish: a huge, huge shout-out to @skyislandx for tipping us off about the possible locations for most of these. You're the best!

UPDATE (01/14/25) - A new depot has been found in Santa Monica! Stay tuned for an article with all the details.