Inside Waymo’s New Vehicle — The Ojai
Waymo has unveiled the Ojai, a purpose-built electric minivan robotaxi co-designed with Geely's Zeekr, aimed at dramatically reducing vehicle costs and scaling its autonomous ride-hailing fleet. The Ojai features Waymo's sixth-generation driver system with 40% fewer sensors but improved performance, and is set to deploy in thousands by end of year. Waymo is targeting over one million paid weekly rides by end of 2026, up from 500,000 currently.
Summary
Waymo has introduced the Ojai, a purpose-built autonomous electric minivan developed in partnership with Geely's Zeekr, representing the company's most significant effort to address its cost challenges in the robotaxi market. Unlike its previous Jaguar I-PACE fleet — which was a retrofitted consumer vehicle — the Ojai was co-designed from the ground up for ride-hailing, featuring a removable steering wheel and a rider-centric cabin experience. Waymo officials suggest that relics like steering wheels and pedals will eventually disappear as the platform evolves.
The Ojai is manufactured by Zeekr in Ningbo, China, then shipped to Mesa, Arizona, for final assembly where Waymo installs its sensor and software systems. Despite tariff costs associated with importing the Chinese-built base vehicle, the Ojai is reportedly about half the cost of the I-PACE to produce. This cost reduction stems from the vehicle being designed specifically to integrate Waymo's self-driving system from the start, eliminating costly retrofitting.
The Ojai is the first vehicle to run Waymo's sixth-generation driver system, which uses 13 LiDAR cameras, six radars, and 17-megapixel cameras — a dramatic resolution upgrade that allows the system to see more with fewer sensors. Overall, the sensor count has been cut by more than 40% compared to the previous generation, while performance has improved. The new sensor pods also include built-in heaters, wipers, and sprayers to handle adverse weather conditions like snow and ice more effectively than the fifth-generation system.
Waymo currently operates around 4,000 vehicles completing 500,000 paid rides per week — a tenfold increase from the prior year — and is targeting more than one million weekly paid rides by end of 2026. The Ojai fleet, alongside incoming Hyundai IONIQ 5 vehicles, is central to achieving that goal. Thousands of Ojai vehicles are expected to be deployed by end of year, scaling into the tens of thousands beyond that.
The company has not been without setbacks. A voluntary software recall covered nearly 3,800 robotaxis after some vehicles drove into flooded roads, and freeway rides were temporarily paused due to issues identified around construction zones. Waymo encounters approximately 10,000 construction zones daily and made refinements to its freeway navigation as a precautionary safety measure.
On the business side, Waymo recently closed a $16 billion funding round at a $126 billion valuation, with backers including Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Dragoneer, and Fidelity. The company plans to expand to more than 20 cities by end of year and faces growing competition from Tesla, Zoox, and Chinese rivals. The Ojai represents Waymo's central strategy for achieving the scale and unit economics necessary to compete in the increasingly crowded autonomous vehicle market.
Key Insights
- Waymo claims the Ojai costs approximately half as much to produce as the Jaguar I-PACE, even after accounting for tariffs on the Chinese-manufactured base vehicle, with savings driven by designing the platform specifically to receive Waymo's self-driving system from the start.
- Waymo's sixth-generation driver system uses 40% fewer sensors than the previous generation while delivering better performance, enabled by a switch to 17-megapixel cameras that allow the system to see more with fewer units.
- Waymo is completing 500,000 paid robotaxi rides per week — a tenfold increase from the same period the prior year — and is targeting more than one million weekly paid rides by end of 2026.
- Waymo issued a voluntary software recall covering nearly 3,800 fifth and sixth generation robotaxis after vehicles were found to have navigated into standing water or flooded roads, addressing the issue through a software update.
- Waymo temporarily paused freeway rides after identifying refinement opportunities in how its system handles construction zones, noting it encounters approximately 10,000 construction zones per day across its fleet.
Topics
Transcript
[0:01] Waymo just gave its robotaxi fleet a major upgrade. This is the Ojai, a purpose built autonomous vehicle and Waymo's most serious attempt yet at cracking its cost problem. It is a boxy electric minivan rolling out to select riders in the coming weeks, starting in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix before expanding to San Diego, Las Vegas and Denver later this summer. [0:36] What's unique about the Ojai experience is that it really was an opportunity to think about a vehicle platform that is purpose built for ride hailing. Now, unlike the Jaguar I-PACE, which Waymo essentially retrofitted from a consumer car with all the headaches that came with that, the Ojai was co-designed with Geely's Zeekr…
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