Waymo began public driverless ride-hailing services in Denver, San Diego, and Tampa on September 1, expanding its U.S. operating footprint to 14 cities. Denver and San Diego launched with the Zeekr-built Ojai as the exclusive vehicle platform, giving Waymo’s newest robotaxi a larger role as the company transitions away from its Jaguar I-Pace fleet.

The Waymo Ojai, internally identified as the Zeekr CM1e and previously associated with the Zeekr RT designation, is manufactured in Ningbo, China, before being shipped to the United States for autonomous-system integration in Mesa, Arizona. Zeekr supplies the vehicle platform, while Waymo supplies the autonomous driving system, computing hardware, and sensors. Magna is involved in downstream integration.

Denver puts the Ojai into a new environment

Denver adds a cold-weather, high-altitude environment to the Ojai’s commercial deployment. The vehicle uses Geely’s SEA-M architecture with redundant steer-by-wire and brake-by-wire systems. Its single rear permanent-magnet synchronous motor produces 200 kW (268 hp) and 342 N·m (252 lb-ft) of torque, paired with a 93 kWh gross-capacity battery.

Waymo’s sixth-generation system uses four LiDAR units, six radar sensors, and 13 external cameras, compared with 29 cameras and five LiDARs on the fifth-generation Jaguar I-Pace. The Ojai’s cameras use 17-megapixel imagers. Heated sensor housings and 10 miniature wipers, each less than 3 inches (76 mm) long, are designed to keep sensor surfaces clear of snow, slush and ice.

The Ojai measures 4,640 mm long with a 3,000 mm wheelbase and uses opposing sliding doors around a B-pillarless passenger opening. Its 2+3 cabin leaves four usable passenger positions because the driver’s seat is unavailable to riders. The battery uses active liquid cooling.

More than 3,200 Ojai chassis have entered the US

More than 3,200 CM1e chassis had landed through the Port of Los Angeles by the end of August, with more than 2,600 arriving during the first eight months of 2026, according to customs and logistics records.

About 300 Ojai vehicles are currently identified as carrying commercial public riders nationwide. Denver and San Diego opened with limited initial availability, and Waymo says it will steadily expand access as the markets develop. Roughly 2,900 additional units remain in integration, calibration, storage, or reserve stages around Mesa.

The expansion comes as Waymo scales its commercial service. The company has surpassed 500,000 fully autonomous EV trips per week and targets 1 million weekly trips by the end of 2026. Its total U.S. commercial fleet across the I-Pace and Ojai has surpassed 4,000 vehicles.

The Ojai enters the US as a rolling glider

The Ojai’s split production process separates the vehicle platform from the autonomous system. Its engineering lineage extends to Zeekr Technology Europe’s development operations in Gothenburg, Sweden. Meanwhile, Zeekr manufactures the CM1e in Ningbo and ships it without autonomous computing, external sensing hardware, telematics equipment, and other connected-vehicle systems, which are installed later in the United States.

Customs treats the imported vehicle as an incomplete mechanical rolling glider. Waymo and Magna install the autonomous computing hardware, sensors, software, and telecommunications equipment in Mesa.

The Bureau of Industry and Security has proposed restrictions covering certain Chinese-origin connected-vehicle software and hardware, while NHTSA records show a federal certification and remediation history for the CM1e. Pre-production vehicles underwent safety-related remediation involving the front passenger seat rail, C-pillar trim, and restraint-system software before passenger fleet deployment.

Tariffs push the imported chassis above 78,000 USD

Customs declarations place the CM1e’s declared base value at approximately 38,000–39,000 USD per chassis. A customs analysis estimates an overall import-related cost burden of roughly 102.5% to 127.5%, incorporating the standard passenger-vehicle tariff, the additional Section 301 duty applicable to Chinese battery-electric vehicles, and other customs and port charges.

That puts the estimated landed cost of the glider at approximately 78,000–86,500 USD. A supply-chain cost analysis estimates the completed vehicle, after Waymo installs its autonomous hardware, at roughly 103,000–110,000 USD. The same analysis places the historical cost of a Waymo Jaguar I-Pace with its autonomous hardware at approximately 200,000 USD. These are industry estimates, not Waymo-disclosed acquisition costs.

The Ojai fills a shrinking platform gap

Jaguar I-Pace production at Magna Steyr ended in late 2024, while General Motors cancelled the Cruise Origin program in 2024. That leaves fewer established vehicle platforms available to an autonomous operator seeking production-ready vehicles at meaningful volume.

Waymo is also developing another platform with Hyundai Motor Group, integrating its sixth-generation Driver into the Hyundai IONIQ 5, with vehicles planned for assembly at Hyundai’s Georgia manufacturing operation. Public-road validation began in 2026, but there is no evidence that the Hyundai platform is entering commercial driverless service at a volume equivalent to the current Zeekr program.

The Ojai is separate from Zeekr’s retail Mix

Waymo adopted the Ojai name for the vehicle in January 2026 after the platform had been publicly associated with the Zeekr RT and CM1e designations.

The Ojai should not be confused with Zeekr’s consumer-market Mix. Both are associated with Geely’s SEA-M architecture, but the Ojai is a commercial fleet configuration developed around Waymo’s autonomous-driving system. CarNewsChina’s coverage of the Zeekr Mix provides additional background on the architecture.

Waymo’s actual supplier pricing and vehicle-level economics remain undisclosed.

Source: CarNewsChina (View original)