GoKawiilWaymo is starting to offer select customers rides in its new Ojai robotaxis, which are designed to work better in snowier conditions and are cheaper to manufacture than the company's older fleet of cars.
Rides will be available to some public passengers in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix, before opening up in San Diego, Las Vegas and Denver this summer, Waymo said in a statement on Thursday.
Alphabet's self-driving division already had 100 Ojai vehicles on the road as part of its almost 4,000-car fleet. The company will have thousands of Ojai cars on the road by the end of the year, Ryan Powell, Waymo's head of design, told CNBC in an interview.
Waymo first announced the Ojai design in 2024. In February, the company opened rides to employees and their guests in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
As Waymo expands its fleet in an effort to cement its lead in the U.S. over Tesla and Amazon's Zoox, the company is aiming to control costs. The Ojai is the first vehicle to take advantage of the sixth-generation Waymo Driver, the company's proprietary driving system, which includes technology that can better detect critical details in low-light situations.