GoKawiilWaymo 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.
Image Credits:Waymo /
While the vehicle is loaded with Waymo’s hardware and software, its foundation comes from Zeekr, the brand owned by China’s Geely Holdings.
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, 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.
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