Alphabet's Waymo unveiled its next-generation robotaxi, the Ojai, on May 28, 2026, the first vehicle in the fleet that was designed from the ground up for driverless ride-hailing rather than retrofitted from a consumer car. The four-seat minivan will begin offering free public rides in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix before paid service is added, the company said in a blog post and on social media.
A Purpose-Built Robotaxi Built With Zeekr
The Ojai is built in partnership with Zeekr, the premium electric vehicle brand owned by China-based Geely Automobile Holdings. Geely's factory in Ningbo manufactures the platform, body, battery and motors, then ships unconnected "base vehicles" to Waymo's facility in Mesa, Arizona, where Magna International helps integrate Waymo's proprietary sensors, compute and connectivity hardware. Waymo says it is scaling Mesa output to tens of thousands of vehicles per year.
The four-seat shuttle features a low step-in, flat floor and elevator-style sliding doors, plus three interior screens that let riders adjust climate and audio. Accessibility upgrades include embedded braille and screen-reader support on seat handles. The configuration replaces the retrofitted Jaguar I-Pace crossovers that have anchored Waymo's commercial fleet, and will operate alongside Hyundai Ioniq 5 robotaxis that the company plans to deploy in the U.S.
Sixth-Generation Waymo Driver Debuts
The Ojai debuts the sixth-generation Waymo Driver, an autonomous-driving stack that uses 13 cameras, four lidars and six radars. The cameras are 17-megapixel units that the company says offer better resolution, dynamic range and low-light sensitivity than current automotive sensors. The new generation is designed to handle harsher weather, including snow, as Waymo prepares to enter winter-weather markets for the first time.
Waymo is the U.S. leader in driverless ride-hail, operating in 11 cities with more than half a million paid rides per week, and plans to expand to roughly 20 more cities in the coming months. The expansion has not been without setbacks: service was suspended in six cities recently after some vehicles encountered flooded roads.
Why the Geely Tie-Up Matters
Building a robotaxi with a Chinese automaker while Washington restricts Chinese connected-vehicle hardware is a delicate balancing act. Waymo says the Zeekr-built skateboard platform ships without Chinese-origin telematics or connectivity that would conflict with U.S. Commerce Department rules, and that all self-driving systems are added in Arizona. The Ojai vehicle itself was designed in Sweden.
The move comes as competitors race to scale. Tesla's robotaxi fleet has shrunk to about 20 vehicles, while Pony AI lifted its 2026 robotaxi fleet target to 3,500 and Amazon-owned Zoox is expanding into Austin and Miami. BYD's assisted-driving data and ongoing autonomous-trucking work at firms such as Torc Robotics underscore how broadly the autonomy stack is being commercialized in 2026.
What to Watch Next
Initial Ojai rides will be free as Waymo gathers feedback, with pricing introduced later and additional markets to follow. Whether the purpose-built design plus the sixth-gen Driver delivers the unit-economics improvements Waymo needs to widen the gap on rivals will be the next major test.
Reporting based on coverage from Transport Topics, InsideEVs and Waymo's own announcement.