Overview
- Waymo began offering select riders free trips in its new Ojai minivan in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix as a limited public rollout to collect rider feedback.
- The Ojai debuts Waymo’s sixth‑generation Waymo Driver, a lower‑sensor, lower‑cost hardware stack that the company says improves performance in heavier snow and harsher weather.
- The base Ojai vehicle is manufactured by Zeekr in China and shipped to Waymo’s Mesa, Arizona facility for installation of Waymo’s sensors, compute and software before deployment.
- The company is simultaneously addressing a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recall of about 3,700–3,800 vehicles for a software issue that could lead cars into flooded roads and has paused some freeway and city operations while fixes are rolled out.
- Waymo is scaling production at its Mesa factory toward tens of thousands of units per year to cut per‑ride costs and expand to more U.S. cities and international markets, but charging fares will depend on completing software remedies and winning regulator approvals.