Waymo starts free public rides in its new Ojai robotaxi

In short: Waymo is starting to pick up members of the public in its new Ojai self-driving vehicles today, with rides free for now.

What happened

Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving car company, has begun offering public rides in a new vehicle called the Ojai in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix. The Ojai is a pale-blue, boxy minivan covered in sensors, and it still has a steering wheel even though it is designed to drive without a human driver.

People can request these rides using the Waymo app. Waymo says the rides will be free at the start, partly to collect feedback from riders.

The Ojai is different from Waymo’s earlier fleet because it is built for driverless service from the start, instead of being a normal car retrofitted later. It uses a mix of cameras, radar, and lidar, which is a sensor that measures distance using laser light (like a tape measure made of light).

Why it matters

This rollout comes at a complicated moment for Waymo. The company recently paused service in six US cities because of problems with how its vehicles react to flooding. It also suspended a highway driving program due to concerns about driving near construction zones.

Ojai is also getting attention because the base vehicle is made in China by Zeekr, a brand under the Chinese automaker Geely. Waymo says the vehicles are built in China without connected car systems, shipped to Arizona, and then fitted with Waymo’s self-driving hardware and software in the US.

In California, free rides also have a practical reason. Waymo says it is still waiting for state permission to charge passengers for rides in the Ojai.

Source: Wired