Almost a Thousand Waymo Ojais Ready for Robotaxi Deployment

Waymo is rapidly expanding and upgrading its robotaxi fleet, as Reddit user jjricks_ demonstrates in his nearly monthly update. In the video, he flies his drone over the Waymo-Magna factory in Mesa, Arizona, where newly delivered vehicles are being equipped with the sixth-generation Waymo Driver.

The vehicles, named after the California town of Ojai (pronounced “Oh hey”) and manufactured by the Chinese company Zeekr—a brand of the Geely Group—are clearly visible on the premises. jjricks_ took the trouble to count the vehicles and break down how many of them are already equipped with the Waymo Driver and how many are still waiting for it. There are a total of 953 Ojais there, of which 648 are equipped and 269 are awaiting the hardware. Among the Zeekr vehicles are also 12 Hyundai Ioniq 5s, another platform Waymo is relying on to replace the current and discontinued Jaguar I-Pace.

Waymo has already imported more than 3,200 Zeekr vehicles from China to the U.S., as reported by Forbes, despite import tariffs of 102.5%. According to U.S. import declarations, the ex-factory price of the Ojai ranges from approximately $38,000 to $38,500 per vehicle. Applying a tariff rate of 102.5% to the upper end of this range results in calculated costs per vehicle of approximately $78,000.

Waymo has stated that the hardware costs for the 6th-generation Waymo Driver are approximately $25,000. Adding this amount to the calculated chassis costs yields an estimated total value of $103,000 for the vehicle and the autonomous driving hardware prior to final integration in the U.S. However, Waymo remains tight-lipped about the actual costs of the Waymo Ojais.

This article was also published in German.