Waymo has begun giving select riders in Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco access to its newest robotaxi: an all-electric minivan-like vehicle designed to keep costs down and handle the use and abuse of hundreds of thousands of riders.
Waymo said Thursday it will eventually expand access to the vehicle, a modified minivan built by Zeekr called the Ojai (pronounced oh-hi), to more riders and cities. For now, the Alphabet-owned company is offering a limited number of customers free rides in Ojai to gather feedback and further improve the robotaxi experience.
The launch of the Ojai comes after years of development and testing — all with the goal of creating a vehicle that is accessible, comfortable, easy to maintain and that costs significantly less to build and run.
His arrival also comes amid a difficult period for Waymo, which recently suspended its robotaxi service on freeways in Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix and San Francisco to improve how its vehicles behave in construction zones. Waymo also suspended service in Atlanta, Georgia, and San Antonio, Texas to deal with flooding in those cities.
Launching the blue minivan may not wipe Waymo’s slate, but it gives the company a real opportunity for scale and revenue.
While the vehicle is loaded with Waymo’s hardware and software, its underpinnings come from Zeekr, the brand owned by China’s Geely Holdings.
The companies partnered in 2021 and presented a custom-built robotaxi concept in late 2022. Waymo spent nearly two years testing the prototype and later a production version of the vehicle on public roads.
The minivan, which was designed in Sweden and built in China, is based on the SEA-M architecture, a refined version of Zeekr’s original Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) intended for “future mobility products” such as robotic vehicles and logistics vehicles.
The Ojai is equipped with Waymo’s sixth-generation system — which includes 13 cameras, four lidar sensors, six radar units and an array of external audio receivers. This sixth-generation system is a cornerstone of Waymo’s commercial strategy because it’s designed to be modular. This means it can be applied to many types of vehicles, including two that have already been announced, the Zeekr minivan and the Hyundai Ioniq 5.
Ojai is supposed to reflect the technological advancements and lessons the company has learned from giving more than 500,000 paid robot rides each week. And it’s also intended to accelerate the growth of Waymo’s fleet, which currently stands at about 3,700 Jaguar I-Pace vehicles.
The stripped-down Zeekr vehicles — which don’t contain any Chinese connected car technology — are shipped to Waymo’s Arizona factory, where they’re fitted with all the bells and whistles of a robotaxi. The company said it is now scaling up to a capacity of tens of thousands of units per year starting with the Ojai and followed by the Hyundai Ioniq 5.
The result is a vehicle with a flat floor, low ride height and gondola-like doors on both sides for easier entry and exit. There are other features aimed at rider delight, including charging ports, cupholders, increased legroom and headroom, grab bars, Braille over various buttons and three large customizable screens where customers can access the ride, change music, control the climate and provide rider advice.
It also features an easier-to-clean interior, faster charging, modular design and increased battery capacity — all details that can help reduce costs and make maintenance and repairs more efficient.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect our editorial independence.
