EVwire brief: Waymo has started opening public rides in the Ojai, its first purpose-built robotaxi and the biggest departure yet from its previous fleet of retrofitted Jaguar I-Paces. Select riders in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles can sign up for free rides over the coming weeks.
Waymo celebrated the Ojai’s rollout on X:
The Ojai is built by Zeekr, Geely's premium EV brand, in Ningbo, China, then shipped to Waymo's Mesa, AZ facility for autonomous hardware integration. Inside, it's a van-like cabin with sliding doors, a flat floor, low step-in height, and three large LED screens.
Accessibility is baked in the Ojai from the start: embedded braille, screen-reader compatibility, and seat-integrated support handles throughout. Worth noting: the Ojai does have a steering wheel, which was added to meet current regulatory requirements, even though early concepts showed none.
The Ojai includes several accessibility features, such as embedded braille, screen-reader compatibility
It's also the first vehicle to run Waymo's sixth-generation Driver system, enabling operation in snowier conditions and supporting the kind of large-scale deployment Waymo is now targeting. The company says it's scaling production at its Mesa, AZ facility toward tens of thousands of units per year.
The Ojai has 40% fewer sensors than its predecessor
Context:
The Ojai’s sensor suite includes 13 cameras, 6 radar sensors, and 4 LiDAR units with heated, self-cleaning housings for all-weather operation, the same hardware configuration Waymo first revealed at CES 2026 under the vehicle's previous name, the Zeekr RT.
In a feature on CNBC, Waymo confirmed that they were able to slash the total sensor count by over 40% in the Ojai, which should lower the costs of the vehicle.
Waymo's existing Driver system has already logged over 20 million fully autonomous trips across 11 cities. Waymo currently operates a fleet of about 4,000 vehicles, and the company has previously announced that it is providing half a million paid rides every week.
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