(Credit: Rakesh Agrawal)
There’s a new autonomous vehicle (AV) in town: Waymo is launching a specially configured robotaxi, a few of which are circling the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix.
The original Waymos are Jaguar I-PACE luxury SUVs with an added sensor stack including cameras, LiDAR, and radars. The new vehicles, which look like snub-nosed minivans, are made by Chinese auto manufacturer Geely on its Zeekr platform. Waymo then adds the sensor stack. There are more than 100 in the fleet, compared with thousands of I-PACEs.
"The technology that collects data and makes our vehicles autonomous—the software, sensors, and computing systems—is developed in the US. Waymo installs the autonomous driving technology on stripped-down, disconnected OEM-provided vehicles in our Arizona manufacturing facility,” says Sandy Karp, a Waymo spokesperson and my tour guide on a recent ride. (Last year, the US banned most Chinese and Russian connected-car tech.)
Waymo calls the finished product Ojai. It’s a city in Southern California, but no doubt a playful reference to the pronunciation of "oh, hi!" Its parent company, Alphabet, generally doesn’t have a sense of humor in its product naming, but its subsidiary, Google, did recently launch an AI image-generation product called Nano Banana.
When Karp pulled up in my purple chariot, she asked where I wanted to go. San Francisco’s famously twisty Lombard Street, of course! Unfortunately, we couldn’t do that. Waymos are designed to take the fastest route, and eight switchbacks with tourists driving down in awe of San Francisco at 5mph will never be that.
Functional Upgrades Over Luxury
The first thing I noticed is that the sensors are better integrated into the Ojai. On the I-PACE, it looks like someone added a crown to a Jaguar. (Which is exactly what they did.) Waymo has optimized costs by reducing the number of cameras from 29 to 13 and LiDARs from five to four. The radars stay the same at six.
Stepping in, I was instantly struck by the spartan interior. Unlike the Jaguar, there is nothing luxurious about it. The Ojai is clearly designed for ride-hail. Instead of leather that envelops you when you sit down in the Jaguar, it uses basic cloth seats. Instead of carpet, there's plastic flooring. The only vehicle I’ve found less comfortable is the Zoox, which I reviewed in September.
Ojai sticks with the traditional car seating pattern. Zoox has four seats, with two facing each other. With Ojai, my butt was sore in about 30 minutes versus 10 in the Zoox. Amazon-owned Zoox announced plans to upgrade its seating in its latest vehicles based on customer feedback (and probably scathing reviews!) Butt, 30 minutes is fine for most of the trips I’ll be taking.
Many of the changes were made to cut costs and to make operating a fleet easier. The accents you associate with a luxury vehicle are gone. All the surroundings are made of hard plastic. This makes cleaning easier, an important operational consideration.
Ojai also gets rid of seatback pockets, making it less likely that you will leave something there. (Take this from someone who lost an iPad in an airplane seatback pocket. Ouch.) There are, however, cupholders. That’s an American right.
Although the Ojai is less luxurious, there are plenty of functional upgrades. Not constrained by traditional vehicle design, Ojai has an incredible amount of legroom. I think even the San Antonio Spurs' 7' 4” Wemby would be comfortable. At my 5'3" and Karp’s 5', we had more than enough space.
Another upgrade is sliding doors and a lower step-in height. It’s easier to load in, a big benefit for children and those with limited mobility. The sliding doors also provide Waymo with an operational benefit: they can close them remotely.
In the I-PACE design, Waymo pays people to close the doors. One of the most technically advanced vehicles bricked by a 1-inch misalignment of the door! The current design even has a display asking passersby to help free the robot. There’s something really funny about that.
Ojai was designed for accessibility with large grab bars by the doors and braille on the door controls. There’s also a big benefit for people outside the Ojai: it prevents “dooring.” As bike lanes become more common, there have been too many cases of bikes colliding with opening doors.
A big improvement is the addition of three giant touch screens that allow you to control navigation and follow the route. There are some fun visualizations. In one view, you can see the Ojai with a thought bubble. I saw it “thinking” about a red light; a subtle cue for riders wondering why they’re stopped. As someone who has designed products for a living, it’s clear that a lot of thought went into this experience. Game recognizes game.
Wherever I see a screen, I assume that there will be ads someday. United now recognizes each passenger and can display personalized ads on its in-flight entertainment system. Like United, Waymo has a captive audience. Karp said there are no plans to share at this time. Given that Waymo is owned by the largest advertising company in the world, however, I’m going to take that as an “eventually.”
In addition to showing where you’re going, the screens control music, temperature, and seat position. Importantly, they adapt at night so you don’t have big white lights shining in your face, Karp said.
Something that hasn’t changed is the privacy of Waymo’s tinted rear window. If you’re in the back, people won’t see you. Riding a Zoox is like riding in a fishbowl.
The ride itself is great. Unlike the Zoox, the Ojai has full-width tires, which help to soften the ride. Even on San Francisco’s pock-mocked streets, the ride was smoother than Zoox on the much-better maintained Las Vegas streets. Zoox declined to provide access to the vehicles it is now operating in San Francisco.
There were only two times in my approximately 45-minute, 4 mile Waymo ride that something felt weird. One was definitely not the fault of the Ojai; another driver cut across our path and the Ojai braked hard. Where it struggled was trying to find a parking space in the midst of San Francisco’s rush hour traffic. That is always tricky, but Ojai was especially jerky.
Ojai has one giant (literally) advantage over Zoox: a full-sized trunk. Zoox doesn’t have one. All luggage is stored inside the cabin, further reducing the amount of space.
I would definitely not recommend Zoox for airport rides. When I rode to SFO in the Waymo I-PACE, my complaint was entirely about the distance from the drop-off to the terminal. Waymo has improved that substantially.
(Unfortunately, because of a recent incident, Waymo disabled freeway access, so I still can’t recommend it. However, when that is resolved, I expect that Waymo will be a reasonable alternative to Uber and Lyft.)
The Ojai was designed with winter weather in mind as Waymo expands to Denver, Detroit, and Minneapolis. The sensors can warm themselves and clean off debris. Think mini windshield wipers for the cameras. Ojai has the 6th-generation Waymo Driver software, while the I-PACE will end at version 5.
Can Zoox Catch Up?
Although the platform was stripped down from the I-PACE, the Ojai is currently a much better experience than the Zoox. The latter is running a massive advertising campaign in Las Vegas; ads were everywhere at Harry Reid International Airport, and there's a pick-up area at the Sphere, but vehicle availability is limited. In September, it was easy to get a Zoox, but during a recent three-day trip to Vegas, most of my requests were met with an error message that said the service was “briefly unavailable.” The couple of times I was offered a vehicle, the routing was so bad that no rational person would accept it. Maybe they should dial down the advertising.
For now, Zoox would still need to offer at least a 50% discount to Waymo for me to consider it. Sometimes you don’t need to reinvent the wheels.
About Our Expert
Rakesh is a San Francisco-based entrepreneur and analyst exploring how technology reshapes society. He focuses on the human side of technology, especially AI and autonomous vehicles. Once, he nearly interviewed Richard Branson in a Vegas wedding chapel before being redirected to Branson’s penthouse suite. Read more on his blog.
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