Waymo has added one mo’ type of vehicle to its fleet in the Seattle area, where the company has been testing for the launch of its autonomous taxi service sometime down the road.
GeekWire spotted a boxy baby blue Ojai in the parking lot of a Fred Meyer store in the Ballard neighborhood on Friday morning. A driver inside confirmed the cute little van with an array of cameras on the front, back and top was indeed one of the company’s newest vehicles.
Waymo first announced in May that the Ojai (pronounced oh-hi) was rolling out in initial cities like Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
The purpose-built electric Ojai is developed in partnership with Chinese automaker Zeekr and assembled in Mesa, Ariz. It joins the electric Jaguar I-Pace SUV that is a frequent sight on roads around Seattle and the Eastside where testing with a driver first started last September.
Zeekr is the premium electric vehicle brand owned by Geely Holding Group — the Chinese automotive titan behind Volvo, Polestar, and Lotus. Originally designed at Geely’s research center in Gothenburg, Sweden, the base vehicle platform is customized specifically for autonomous ride-hailing before Waymo equips it with its self-driving tech stack.
The Ojai features Waymo’s 6th-generation autonomous hardware stack, which reduces sensor costs while improving performance in complex road and weather conditions, according to the company. The San Francisco Examiner reported that the updated sensor array has 13 cameras and four lidar sensors, compared with 29 cameras and five lidar sensors in the previous version.
The inside of the Ojai looks especially roomy, which Waymo calls “a living room on wheels,” featuring elevator-like doors and a low step and flat floor that apparently make it easier to get in and out. Three LED screens are customizable for temperature, music and more.
Alphabet-owned Waymo began in 2009 as the Google Self-Driving Car Project. In 2022, Google tested cars in Bellevue and Kirkland for six months to better understand operations in rainy weather.
Before Waymo can officially pull human safety drivers out of the front seat for paid rides in the region, Washington state lawmakers will need to establish a dedicated regulatory framework.
Earlier this year, state Sen. Matt Boehnke introduced SB 6243, which aimed to establish statewide operational and safety guidelines for commercial autonomous vehicle networks. The measure failed to pass out of committee during the 2026 legislative session.
Waymo says it has facilitated more than 20 million fully autonomous trips across 11 cities. Beyond the initial markets announced in May, Waymo said it planned to roll Ojai out to Denver, Las Vegas and San Diego, before going wider to everyone later this year.
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