Waymo’s commercial robotaxi ramp-up looks expansive, both in geographic reach and in ridership. And by almost every measure, it is — until you pay attention to where the bulk of those robotaxis are actually showing up.
The numbers over the past two years reflect the kind of commercial rollout you’d expect from a deep-pocketed company like Waymo, which spun out of Google and still counts Alphabet as its majority owner. In September 2024, Waymo was operating in just three cities — Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Today, it offers robotaxi service in 15 U.S. cities, with most of those commercial launches occurring in the past year. Ridership has skyrocketed, too with Waymo now averaging 500,000 paid robotaxi rides every week.
But a closer look at its fleet shows a company concentrating its efforts in just two states. About 80% of Waymo’s roughly 4,000 robotaxis are in California and Texas, and Texas is where the action is now: Waymo’s fleet there has grown by nearly half in the past three weeks, fueled by a new Chinese-built minivan the company is betting will help it scale, even as tariffs drive up its costs.
The other 800 or so vehicles are spread across cities in other states, <a href="https://warsaw.today/air-canada-portland-singapore-909-roundtrip-including-all-taxes/” title=”Air Canada: Portland – Singapore. $909. Roundtrip, including all Taxes”>including Arizona and Florida, another burgeoning hotspot. Most are the familiar white Jaguar I-Pace electric SUVs, but a growing share are that new minivan — a modified Zeekr RT that Waymo has branded “Ojai.”
Waymo’s focus on California is no surprise. It is headquartered in Silicon Valley, and much of its early testing and development work was conducted there. Plus, a segment of the population there is inclined to adopt tech at its earliest stages.
The recent growth in Texas is more interesting. Waymo has increased its Texas fleet by 49% in the past three weeks, according to state vehicle registrations and data from the Texas Autonomous Vehicle Fleet Tracker. As of September 24, Waymo had 1,102 autonomous vehicles registered in the state.
Waymo first launched in commercial service in Austin through a partnership with Uber in March 2025, letting riders hail its robotaxis through the uber app. Since then, the company has expanded its robotaxi services in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.
Waymo’s Texas fleet remained relatively static for most of the summer, inching up from about 600 vehicles in June to more than 700 by the end of August. Then came September, when the he fleet surged, driven by an influx of new Ojai minivans, which now make up about a third of Waymo’s Texas fleet.
Expect that share to grow.
The Ojai robotaxi, equipped with Waymo’s sixth-generation self-driving system, is supposed to help Waymo reach mass scale. Its interior is built to withstand heavy use, and it comes with an upgraded rider interface and Google’s Gemini AI, which acts as an in-car assistant for riders.
Strip away that technology, though, and the Ojai is a minivan made by Zeekr, a brand owned by China’s Geely Holding Group (which also owns Volvo). The Ojai is built on Zeekr’s SEA-M platform, a shared vehicle platform designed for uses like robotaxis and delivery vans. The base Zeekr vehicles are shipped to the U.S. without any Chinese connected-car technology on board. Once they arrive, the vehicles are sent to Waymo’s Arizona factory, where they are outfitted with Waymo’s self-driving system.
The Ojai is supposed to drive down costs and ultimately help Waymo reach profitability. For now, though, tariffs are cutting any savings. Under current U.S. trade policy, vehicles built in China face steep import tariffs, raising Waymo’s costs for every Ojai it brings into the country.
Waymo appears willing to absorb that cost. New York-based research firm MoffettNathanson, which tracks Ojai imports using detailed shipping records, said in its September report that Waymo is on track to bring 5,100 of the vehicles into the U.S. by the end of the year.
Where will all those Ojai vehicles go? Texas is certainly on the list. But Florida, where Waymo operates in three cities, and newer markets like Las Vegas will likely see an influx as well.
Source: techcrunch.com
