As of yesterday, August 19, 2026, Waymo has made its new robotaxis—called Ojai (pronounced “Oh Hey”)—available to the general public in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. And of course, I jumped at the chance to try one out right away. I’d already sat inside one at CES 2023, but I hadn’t actually ridden in one yet. So today, at the first opportunity, I ordered a Waymo at the Stanford Shopping Mall, where there’s even a special pickup zone for autonomous cars marked with this sign.
The Waymo app itself has undergone some changes and currently looks like this:
The vehicle arrived and waited not at the pickup zone, but around the corner. In the app, you can set the vehicle to open its doors immediately upon arrival, but it didn’t do that for me, even though I had selected that option. After I unlocked the doors, they opened automatically. These are two sliding doors that make getting in very easy.
There are three screens in the vehicle—two in the back seats and one in the front seat. As with the Jaguar I-Paces, you can use the three rear seats and the front passenger seat. The back seats offer plenty of space; I was able to stretch out my legs without touching the front seats. And I’m 1.82 meters tall.
You can close the doors via the screen; they close automatically—which immediately solves the problem of passengers failing to close the doors and blocking the vehicle, as is the case with the Jaguar I-Pace.
The ride itself began with a brief jolt, an intervention from the operations center, and a short roll backward before the ride finally began. At the start, a roughly one-minute video with explanations played. Both the text and the voice were in German because I had set my smartphone to German; this setting was carried over by the Waymo app and thus also by the Waymo Ojai.
The ride itself went smoothly, without any further incidents—it was very quiet and comfortable. Upon arrival, the vehicle reminded me not to leave behind any cell phones, keys, wallets, or bags; then I pressed the button on the door to open it, both sliding doors opened, and I was able to get out comfortably. Then I waited for the vehicle until, after a few seconds, it automatically closed the doors and drove away after another 10 seconds or so.
I also tried out the Gemini voice feature in the vehicle, which allows you to ask the vehicle questions or give it instructions using voice commands. I asked about the year the bookstore I was driving to was founded, and Gemini told me it was 1955. I also asked the vehicle to set the air conditioning temperature to 21 degrees. The vehicle did so, but not without informing me that it had set the temperature to 72 degrees Fahrenheit as requested, which it also converted for me to 21 degrees Celsius.
This ride took place from the Stanford Shopping Mall to the Kepler’s Bookstore on Menlo Park around 1.1 miles distance on August 20th, 2026, around 2:40pm PDT.
One more thing: that was my 148th ride in a Waymo. 147 of those were in the Jaguar I-Pace.
This article was also published in German.
1 Comment