Waymo’s newest robotaxi is Chinese-made, built to make money, and now accepting riders

Waymo has started giving select riders in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco access to its newest robotaxi: an all-electric, minivan-like vehicle that is designed to lower costs 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 Zeekr-made minivan 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 the Ojai to gather feedback and further refine the robotaxi experience.

The launch of the Ojai comes after years of development and testing — all in the pursuit of creating a vehicle that is accessible, comfortable, easy-to-maintain, and that importantly costs less to build and operate.

Its arrival also comes amid a challenging time for Waymo, which recently suspended robotaxi service on freeways in Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, and San Francisco to improve how its vehicles behave in construction zones. Waymo also paused services in Atlanta, Georgia and San Antonio, Texas to address problems with flooding in those cities. 

The launch of the blue-hued minivan might not wipe the slate clean for Waymo, but it does give the company a real chance at scale and revenue generation.

While the vehicle is loaded with Waymo’s hardware and software, its foundation comes from Zeekr, the brand owned by China’s Geely Holding Group.

The companies partnered in 2021 and showed off a concept of the purpose-built robotaxi in late 2022. Waymo has spent nearly two years testing the prototype, and later a production-intent version of the vehicle on public roads.

The minivan, which was designed in Sweden and manufactured in China, is based on the SEA-M architecture, a refined version of Zeekr’s original Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) meant for “future mobility products” like robotaxis and logistics vehicles.

The Ojai is equipped with Waymo’s sixth-generation system — including 13 cameras, four lidar sensors, six radar units, and an array of external audio receivers. That sixth-generation system is the keystone to Waymo’s commercial strategy because it’s designed to be modular. This means it can be applied to multiple kinds of vehicles, including two that have already been announced, the Zeekr minivan and the Hyundai Ioniq 5.

The Ojai is supposed to reflect the technological progress and lessons the company has learned from giving more than 500,000 paid robotaxi rides every week. And it’s also meant to accelerate the growth of Waymo’s fleet, which today is about 3,700 Jaguar I-Pace vehicles.

The stripped-down Zeekr vehicles — which don’t contain any Chinese connected car tech — are sent to Waymo’s Arizona factory, where they are outfitted with all of its robotaxi bells and whistles. The company said it is now scaling toward a capacity of tens of thousands of units annually starting with the Ojai, and followed by the Hyundai Ioniq 5.

The result is a vehicle with a flat floor, low step-in height, and gondola-like doors on both sides for easier entry and exit. There are other features aimed at pleasing riders, including charging ports, cup holders, increased leg and head room, grab bars, braille above various buttons, and three large adaptive screens, where customers can access the route, change music, control climate, and provide rider tips.

It also has an easier-to-clean interior, faster charging, a modular design, and increased battery capacity — all details that can help reduce costs and make maintenance and repairs more efficient.

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