Waymo Ojai Robotaxi Opens to All Riders in SF, LA and Phoenix

The Ojai moves from pilot to paid fleet

Waymo has made the Ojai, its purpose-built robotaxi, available to every rider in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix. The Ojai is a Zeekr-built electric minivan and the first vehicle to run the company's sixth-generation Waymo Driver. It now carries paying passengers after a limited stage in which selected riders could ride for free3. For now, anyone who hails a Waymo in those three cities may get either an Ojai or one of the older Jaguar I-PACE SUVs. Waymo plans to let riders choose between the two once more minivans are on the road3.

The fleet is still small. A company spokesperson put the number of Ojais in commercial service at about 300 when access opened to all riders in August315. Waymo's total fleet is above 4,000 vehicles, so the minivan is a small share for now9. What matters more is where the company is heading. Waymo has described the sixth-generation system as the primary engine for its next stage of expansion, and its rollout since then fits that description4.

A deliberate, staged rollout

The reports agree on the timeline, and the steps look carefully planned. Employees and their guests began taking fully driverless Ojai rides in San Francisco and Los Angeles on February 12415. On May 28, Waymo said selected public riders in San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles could take free Ojai trips while it gathered feedback15. Paid access for everyone in those three cities followed in August315.

After that, the Ojai began to anchor new markets instead of only joining existing ones. Waymo started public service in Denver, San Diego and Tampa on September 1. Denver and San Diego launched with the Ojai as their only vehicle, while Tampa runs on the I-PACE915. Las Vegas followed on September 14 as Waymo's 15th market, with a fleet made up mostly of Ojais. Its service area covers the Strip up to Sahara Avenue and parts of Spring Valley and Winchester1315. One account counts six Ojai cities served in under eight months15.

The coverage does not fully agree on dates and city counts. One city directory says San Diego, Tampa and Denver launched in July 202616. Other reports place the public openings in those cities on September 1, after a July announcement and employee-only operations199. The September dates are the better-supported reading. At least one outlet also folded Las Vegas into the early-September group, but Las Vegas was still employee-first at that point and opened to the public two weeks later1913. These differences come from Waymo's practice of separating announcement, employee service, waitlist access and full public access. Headlines often merge those stages.

Why "cheaper" is the real story

The Ojai matters mainly because of what it costs to build and run, more than what it is like to ride. CNBC reported that the sixth-generation Driver uses more cost-effective parts4. Waymo engineering vice president Satish Jeyachandran said the new lidar benefits from the industry's sharp cost declines over the past five years4. The sensor reduction is large. The fifth-generation Driver on the Jaguar uses 29 cameras, six radars and five lidars. The sixth-generation suite uses 13 cameras, six radars and four lidars, helped by a 17-megapixel imager that covers more with fewer cameras84. One report, citing CNBC, said Waymo cut total sensor count by more than 40 percent5.

InsideEVs reported that the Ojai is much cheaper to build and operate than the I-PACE, even with higher import tariffs3. That claim should be read with care. Waymo has not disclosed what it pays Zeekr or what each vehicle costs, so any figure for the savings would be a guess9. The headline "cheaper" refers to Waymo's own costs, not lower fares. None of the coverage reports a lower price for riders who end up in an Ojai.

Lower costs only matter if production can keep up, and that is where Waymo is putting its effort. The company says it is scaling its Mesa, Arizona, plant toward tens of thousands of Waymo-enabled vehicles a year1. Zeekr builds the base vehicle in Ningbo, China. It is shipped without autonomous computing, sensors or connected-car systems, and Waymo and Magna install that hardware in Mesa911. MoffettNathanson tracks Ojai imports through shipping records and says Waymo is on track to bring in about 5,100 units by year-end12. A separate estimate says more than 3,200 chassis have already arrived, with about 2,900 of them still in integration, calibration, storage or reserve9. Those two figures fit together. They point to a large inventory waiting to enter service, which suggests the 300-vehicle count from August will rise quickly.

Weather, riders and the expansion map

The hardware change also makes some cities possible. Waymo says the sixth-generation system was built for snowier conditions1. Its sensors have heated housings and ten miniature wipers to clear slush and ice9. Denver is the first Ojai market with regular snow, and Jeyachandran said the system was designed for that condition15. That explains why Denver opened with the new vehicle alone. The I-PACE fleet was not built for winter, and Waymo's 2026 plans include colder cities such as Detroit and Washington4.

The rider experience is a secondary selling point. The Ojai has sliding doors, a flat floor, a low step-in height and three large screens. Accessibility features include embedded braille, screen-reader compatibility and a handle built into the seat15. It seats four for now. Waymo has said a fifth seat could become possible if regulations ever allow the steering wheel to be removed8. TechCrunch also reports an upgraded rider interface and Google's Gemini AI as an in-car assistant12.

The scale behind the numbers

The Ojai rollout sits inside a broader expansion. In September 2024, Waymo operated in three cities. It now serves 15 U.S. cities, and most of those launches came in the past year12. Co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov said in March that the company had reached 500,000 rides a week15. Waymo is aiming for 1 million weekly trips by the end of 20269. The company says its analysis of more than 220 million fully autonomous miles shows 82 percent fewer injury crashes than its human-driver benchmarks. That comparison uses Waymo's own methodology14.

Competitors are moving too. Zoox already operates in Las Vegas, and Tesla and Uber received Nevada permits in September17. Chinese operators such as Baidu's Apollo Go and WeRide have expanded abroad faster than Waymo4. Waymo's main advantage is that it can keep adding cheaper vehicles in several cities at once, and the Ojai is how it does that.

The China risk

The Ojai's biggest weakness is political. Republican lawmakers have objected to Waymo using Chinese-built vehicles4. A stalled Senate bill could block imports of the vehicle that Waymo's expansion depends on15. The Bureau of Industry and Security has also proposed limits on certain Chinese-origin connected-vehicle hardware and software9. Waymo has said Zeekr gets no access to its driving technology, sensor data or rider information4. The company has also removed Zeekr branding from the vehicle and given it a California name8. Shipping the vans without connected systems appears designed for this regulatory climate39.

The backup plan is a Hyundai Ioniq 5 running the same sixth-generation Driver48. Waymo has not said when it will carry public riders or how volume will be divided between the two vehicles15. One analysis found no sign that the Hyundai platform is close to commercial service at Zeekr-like volumes9. Waymo's next round of upgrades points the same way. A refreshed silver Ojai with an improved interior will start in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas in the coming weeks15.

The takeaway

Opening the Ojai to all riders in three cities matters less for the rides themselves than for what it shows: Waymo's lower-cost platform works in commercial service and can launch new markets on its own. The company has paired cheaper sensors, a dedicated vehicle and a factory designed for tens of thousands of units a year, which is the setup it needs for nationwide scale. The main risk is the dependence on a China-built vehicle while Washington debates import limits. Until the Hyundai platform can carry real volume, Waymo's growth plans depend on how that policy fight turns out.