The Brief

Waymo has been operating its fleets of autonomous taxis in greater Los Angeles for more than a year, expanding the areas its all-electric Jaguars service to 79 square miles between Santa Monica and downtown.

The company was given the regulatory go-ahead to drive on freeways last summer. And now, after more than 1.9 million miles clocked on the mean streets of L.A., Waymo is finally ready to take on our glorious city's most stereotypical and notorious feature.

So how is Waymo going to fare crossing multiple lanes of the 110 to hit the 10 interchange during afternoon rush-hour on a Friday of a long holiday weekend?

"Actually, freeways are easier than surface streets," said Rahul Jain, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at USC, with a research focus on autonomous driving. "Surface streets are much harder."

Freeways are easier?

That's because our local streets are filled with things that disrupt or control the flow of traffic. Think stop signs, traffic lights, pedestrians, little delivery bots.

Essentially, there are fewer variables on the freeway. Speed is one of them, Jain said. Being able to stay in your lane is another.

He added that technologies to control for those factors already exist in cars today, meaning hands-free freeway driving is largely already a reality — Waymo or no Waymo.

"There is active cruise control," Jain said. "If the vehicle in front, for example, slows down, then the car will also slow down — as opposed to cruise control, where it doesn't do that."

Lane assist or lane keeping, Jain added, is a common feature that keeps cars from veering out of lane.

But Jain said Waymo obviously has some major technological legs up over other cars — including the ability to "see" in 360 degrees around the car at all times, allowing for lane changes.

We reached out to Waymo to learn its plan to tackle freeway driving. The company wasn’t able to provide someone to speak to us before publication.

Getting stumped

Still, as equipped as Waymos are, Jain said in the parlance of engineering, there will always be "edge" or "corner" cases — outlier situations, the unknown-unknowns.

For example, if we hear sirens, what we are supposed to do is to pull over to let the emergency vehicle through. That kind of scenario, Jain said, could stump an autonomous vehicle.

All in all, Jain said, he thinks Waymo will do just fine on our interstates. After all, this test period — where only company staffers are allowed to ride in the cars — is precisely designed for Waymo to learn from these kinks.

It's an assessment that Jiaqi Ma, director of UCLA’s Mobility Center of Excellence, agrees with. Freeways are "more  predictable, frankly," Ma said.

But speed means decisions need to be made faster.

" Functionally, it has to be capable of dealing with those emergent conditions very fast," Ma said.

"I think  the technology is pretty ready now, and this technology has to be tested, deployed and tested," Ma added. "This is exactly what they're doing now. They are testing it in different cities, different environments."

Not totally autonomous

It's rinse and repeat until the technology holds its own against our complex road systems.

Ma said Waymo is not operating currently as a fully autonomous car. It's at Level 4, he said, out of five.

" That means some humans got to be in the loop, right? There are remote operators — remote assistance to support these vehicles," Ma said.

He said he doesn't know if the driverless taxi service will ever be operating in the wild at full autonomy because there are too many surprises that even a growing data set might not be able to account for.

" It's a tricky engineering question. I hope it will happen, but there are still a lot of technical issues to be resolved," he said.

In the meantime, don't be alarmed when you see a Waymo alongside you on the 10 — it's just another day on L.A.'s freeways.

Fall is here, and so are the cozy, seasonal drinks. If you’re looking to skip out on chain lattes and support local instead, this guide is for you.

Whether you’re a pumpkin spice lover or not, these Eastside cafes have a variety of drinks and pastries to choose from.

Cafe Niña

Add a ghost design to your drink at Cafe Niña.

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Courtesy of Cafe Niña

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What started as a home-based coffee shop in Boyle Heights has now expanded to a brick-and-mortar location in East Los Angeles. Find their fall menu at both locations. If you’re looking for spooky vibes, ask for a ghost design on the inside of your cup.

• Pumpkin pillon latte: Pumpkin with piloncillo
• Durazno Latte: Peach cobbler-inspired latte

Acurrúcame Café

The pumpkin spice latte is made with fresh pumpkin and espresso at Acurrúcame Café.

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Courtesy of Acurrúcame Café

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This cafe is known for specialty drinks available only to customers who order in person. Its pumpkin spice matcha and latte are available now, while the Franken-Berry latte and the Beetlejuice matcha will be available starting September 26.

• Pumpkin spice matcha or latte: Made with fresh pumpkin and either matcha or espresso
• Franken-Berry latte: Made with espresso and blueberries
• Beetlejuice: Matcha made with blackberries

Semillas Café y Flores

Maple brown sugar shaken espresso from Semillas Café y Flores.

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Courtesy of Semillas Café y Flores

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Pair your fall pastries, including maple pecan blondies, ginger molasses cookies or a slice of pumpkin loaf with your choice of fall drinks:

• Carrot cake latte: House-made spiced carrot syrup, espresso, cream cheese cold foam with pecan crunch topping
• Manzanita tonic: Spiced apple cider, tonic water, espresso, house-made canela syrup with apple crisp topping
• Canelita cold brew: House-made canela syrup, Chiapas cold brew with cinnamon cold foam
• Maple shaken espresso: Maple syrup, sea salt, espresso shaken with ice, topped with a splash of milk and maple cold foam

Cafe Cafe Mobile Coffee

The butternut squash latte topped with cookie crumble from Cafe Cafe Mobile.

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Courtesy of Cafe Cafe Mobile

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Not a pumpkin spice lover? Cafe Cafe Mobile has you! Its butternut squash latte has been a crowd favorite during the fall season.

• Butternut squash latte: An ode to pumpkin spice but with butternut squash spices, topped with cookie crumble.

Cake Girl

Pumpkin spice cold brew from Cake Girl.

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Courtesy of Cake Girl

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Anhelo Coffee

For all the cookie butter and piloncillo pumpkin lovers out there, Anhelo Coffee has you covered:

• Cookie butter latte: Cookie butter blended with espresso; iced version available with cream top and sprinkled with crushed Biscoff cookies.
• Piloncillo pumpkin spice latte: House-made piloncillo pumpkin spice syrup blended with espresso.
• Piloncillo pumpkin spice cold brew: Cold brew coffee topped with house-made piloncillo pumpkin spice cream.
• Cookies & cream matcha: Matcha blended with cookies and cream

California Community Colleges announced an agreement Thursday with Arizona State University that creates a guaranteed transfer pathway for students.

In recent years, ASU has been rapidly expanding, “growing with no end in sight and expanding well beyond the state's borders,” as AZ Central put it. For California community colleges, the new agreement offers a new option for students who struggle to transfer to the California State University and University of California systems.

For over a decade, California community college students could enroll in a two-year associate degree of transfer after it was codified in law. There are about 60 ADT options students can do. The law envisioned that if students completed that program, they were guaranteed admission to a California State University campus. In recent years, that guaranteed transfer degree has also let students transfer to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

What transfer options do students have?

But the transfer process is not an easy one.

A state audit of the transfer process in 2024 found that only 21% of students who started at a California community college between 2017 and 2019 transferred to a four-year university within four years of starting their ADT program. The audit pointed to “financial insecurity, family responsibilities, and an inability to relocate.”

Another reason: CSU and UC had complicated transfer requirements that were difficult for students to navigate. And transfer students weren’t always offered their first-choice CSU or UC school — so even if they got into a CSU or UC school, sometimes they didn’t go because it was not in the region they were applying to.

The audit also found:

• every community college did not offer all ADTs
• all CSU campuses did not accept all the ADTs
• not all community colleges offered counseling to make sure students had the required number of units to transfer. 

The Arizona State option

Enter ASU with a golden ticket, literally.

At a signing ceremony at their center downtown, ASU officials demonstrated — printed-out tickets in hand — how ASU was going to guarantee a degree pathway for every student who completes the ADT.

 ”The plan here is to try to increase transfer, increase completion of baccalaureates in equitable ways for Californians,” said James Todd, chief academic officer at the California Community Colleges.

“ What makes this unique is this is the most comprehensive ADT partnership that has existed for the California Community Colleges,” said Jeff DeFranco, special advisor to the provost at ASU. “Arizona State University is accepting all 60 associate degrees for transfers. So we're saying we're accepting all these, and those 60 actually lead and open you up to nearly ... 100 different degree options.”

Students who choose to transfer to ASU can enroll on campus in Arizona, do the program online or opt for ASU Local, where you do your coursework online but you have a weekly meeting with your fellow students and ASU staff.

“ What ASU could provide is, for instance, let's say you can't leave your community, and this was the case for many students: childcare, supporting an intergenerational household, work commitments, whatever was going on — sometimes they can't leave,” he said. “ASU has more than 200 bachelor's degrees online, and that is very unique.”

Californians will decide on more than a dozen ballot initiatives this November, covering a wide range of proposals focused on housing, taxes, recall elections, voter identification and more.

One ballot measure would approve an $11.25 billion bond for affordable housing; another would create a new down payment assistance program for homebuyers. Proposition 40 would establish a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of billionaires in California, while two other propositions would limit new taxes and potentially nullify Prop. 40. Other ballot measures, if approved, would change the recall election process in California, require identification to vote and speed up the environmental review process for certain developments.

It’s a lot of information to wade through on your own.

That’s why LAist unveils its Voter Game Plan each election season, with guides to help you cast a ballot that aligns with your values and beliefs. (The one thing we don’t do? Tell you how to vote. That is up to you.) For the Nov. 3 general election, LAist is also hosting a series of ballot cram sessions focused on helping you make informed decisions.

The series kicked off on Wednesday with AirTalk Host Larry Mantle and a panel of experts focused on the long list of statewide propositions in a one-hour cram session.

Michael Alvarez, professor of political and computational social science at CalTech; Sara Sadhwani, associate professor of politics at Pomona College, and Lee E. Ohanian, a professor of economics at UCLA and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, provided an overview of each ballot measure. The trio described the pros, cons and stakes of every decision Californians face this November, including the confusing and conflicting trio of tax measures you’ll see on your ballot as Props. 40, 41 and 42.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty as to how much revenue this might generate. There’s a lot of uncertainty, in particular, if it’s going to generate revenue in sufficient time to help the Californians who are really in need of having healthcare,” said Alvarez on Prop. 40, which would create a one-time tax on billionaires to fund healthcare.

Lee and Sadhwani both noted that there's a question of whether the tax would drive billionaires out of the state. “If you think that super high wealthy people should be paying more in taxes, there’s better ways to do this,” said Lee.

As for Prop. 41, which would require audits of new tax programs, and Prop. 42, which would ban new taxes on personal property, the panel agreed the measures are confusing.

Both propositions would nullify Prop. 40 if they receive more votes in support than the billionaire tax measure. That’s the big thing to remember, said Sadhwani: “They’re really the poison pills of Prop. 40, the billionaire’s tax. So a yes on 41 or a yes on 42 is a no essentially for Prop. 40.”

“I’ll be honest, Prop. 41 as well as Prop. 42 kind of makes my eyes glaze over,” said Sadhwani. Alvarez added that the measures make his head spin. Experts — they’re just like us!

LAist’s upcoming voter cram sessions will focus on judicial elections and Orange County.

You can find LAist’s Voter Game Plan and dozens of guides to the Nov. 3 election here at LAist.com/Vote

Elevated sea levels are already rolling into Southern California waters, leading to coastal erosion and other damage. An El Niño-driven Kelvin wave is further exacerbating conditions along the coast. And Tropical Storm Rachel could bring rain across the region this weekend.

But all of this is probably just the beginning of a very wet Southern California rainy season.

Authorities have been sounding the alarm.

“ Residents need to hear this information, and they need to hear it repeatedly, enough times so that they too can act,” L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis said during a recent presentation about El Niño preparations.

Heavy rain, flooding and debris flows can pose serious threats to homes and infrastructure. Officials and climate scientists say the best way to protect yourself and your property is to make preparations now, well before peak El Niño conditions arrive.

Here’s what you can do to prepare your home.

Preparing your property

One of the first steps to getting your home ready for El Niño is to understand how vulnerable it is to flooding when heavy rain or surging surf hits your neighborhood.

“It really is incumbent upon people to pause, evaluate where they live, where they travel and to really think about what would happen if those areas were flooded out,” said Kerjon Lee, spokesperson for the L.A. County Department of Public Works. “ Knowing your community, your neighborhood, where mud and debris flow might occur — is really critical.”

You can review your risks using California’s MyHazard tool, which allows you to input your address and cycle through potential risks.

Floodwaters and the landscape

Knowing if your property or neighborhood has flooded in the past can be helpful, and you can learn a lot from simply looking at the landscape in and around your home.

If your house is at the bottom of a hillside, for example, it’s probably more susceptible to debris flows, especially if the slope burned in a wildfire in the last several years. Burn scars are especially vulnerable to landslides and flooding because they lack the established vegetation that helps hold soil in place and absorbs water during heavy rain.

Other landmarks to look out for near your property are creeks, canals, drainage channels, debris basins and even low-lying roadways.

It’s also a good idea to understand how rainwater flows onto your property, where it collects and how it leaves. The goal should be for water to flow through your property safely and efficiently, without causing damage to neighbors.

That means clearing debris and overgrowth from gutters and drains now, before extreme weather hits.

Officials are also urging residents to report clogged or blocked storm drains to their local public works department.

If you live in L.A. County and are concerned about potential mud or debris flows, you can contact the county’s Department of Public Works for free advice.

Sandbags

If your property is at high risk of flooding, consider stockpiling sandbags. Many fire departments and public works departments offer sandbags to their local communities.

You can check sandbag distribution locations and availability here:

• L.A. County
• Orange County 
• Ventura County
• Santa Barbara County
• Riverside County
• San Bernardino County

Be prepared to fill the sandbags yourself, as most places only offer empty ones. Never fill sandbags with beach sand or empty used ones onto the beach.

Once you have sandbags, make sure you know how to use them properly.

Here are a few tips:

• Only fill sandbags half-full, not all the way full.
• Do not place sandbags directly against the outer wall of a building as wet bags can create added pressure on the foundation. 
• Sandbags should be placed parallel to the direction of water flow.
• The open ends of sandbags should be folded underneath and face upstream so they aren’t forced open as water flows around them.
• Sandbags should be used to redirect floodwater rather than create a dam or block its path. 
• Sandbags can be used to protect doorways, but to do so, they should have a waterproof layer like heavy plastic or waterproof canvas placed behind them. 

This diagram shows the proper way to place sandbags so that they are parallel to the flow of water or debris and redirect it away from structures.

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Los Angeles County Department of Public Works

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Local agencies offer thorough instructions on how to use sandbags online. L.A. County Public Works offers a breakdown in its Homeowners Guide.

Sandbags and other materials for protecting your home, including plywood, lumber or plastic sheeting, should be stored in a dry location away from potential flooding.

Other flood considerations

If valuables could be damaged or destroyed by floodwaters, consider moving them away from the ground or, if possible, to upper floors. Keep important documents in waterproof containers or sealed bags, and make sure to create digital copies.

Another recommendation is to check trees on your property for dead branches, cracks or other issues that might make them unstable, especially those that hang over structures. If you’re unsure or concerned about your trees, you can hire an arborist to inspect them. To trim or remove them, you will likely have to hire a professional. Cities and counties generally do not handle tree maintenance on private property.

Finally, consider purchasing flood insurance if your home is at risk — and do so as early as possible.

Standard homeowners insurance policies typically do not cover flood damage, and new flood insurance plans can take at least 30 days to kick in. If you want to consider signing up for a plan, the National Flood Insurance Program is a good place to start.

If floodwaters do enter your home, public health officials recommend drying wet areas as quickly as possible, as saturation can lead to mold. If mold does take hold, clean the area using a disinfectant. Also, wear gloves and a mask to protect your skin and lungs and throw away moldy items that can’t be cleaned.