If you hail a Waymo in San Francisco today, there is a growing chance that a Chinese-built, Swedish-designed Zeekr will turn up instead of the familiar Jaguar I-Pace. Waymo has now opened its new Ojai robotaxi to regular paying customers after California regulators cleared the vehicle for commercial driverless rides.

The rollout marks a major step up from June, when Newmobility.news first reported on the Ojai and its initial free rides in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix.

And Waymo appears to be preparing for much more: customs data suggest that more than 3,200 Zeekr-built Ojai base vehicles have already been shipped to the United States, despite the hefty tariffs imposed on Chinese EVs.

Select early-access users

Until now, the Ojai was mainly offered to select early-access users, whose rides were free because Waymo had not yet received permission to charge passengers for rides in the new vehicle.

That changed on 14 August. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved the Ojai for paid driverless passenger service and simultaneously cleared a substantial geographical expansion of Waymo’s commercial operations across parts of 18 California counties. The actual rollout will happen gradually rather than overnight.

Waymo has subsequently opened Ojai rides to all customers in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Passengers cannot yet specifically request the new model, but may be matched with one when ordering a normal Waymo ride.

3,200 cars despite huge tariffs

Even more revealing than the commercial launch is the number of cars apparently waiting behind it. According to bills of lading analyzed by ImportGenius for Forbes, Zeekr has shipped more than 3,200 CM1e units, the internal designation for the Ojai base vehicle, through the Port of Los Angeles since 2024. More than 2,600 arrived in 2026 alone.

Waymo has not confirmed that total, but Zeekr has no other known US customer for the vehicle. ImportGenius also lists 3,200 as the minimum because it counts only customs documents that explicitly identify Zeekr or the vehicle model.

That is a very different picture from the cautious rollout in May, when Waymo initially spoke of just over 100 Ojais. By early August, it said more than 300 were already carrying early-access passengers.

Forbes estimates that Chinese-built EVs such as the Ojai currently face an effective US tariff burden of 127.5%. At a hypothetical Chinese vehicle price of $39,000, that would push the base vehicle to $89,000 before Waymo even installs its autonomous driving technology.

Yet abandoning Ojai might be even more expensive. Waymo and Zeekr started developing the vehicle years before Washington erected its tariff wall, and Waymo’s sixth-generation autonomous-driving hardware was engineered around the platform.

The Chinese-built cars also arrive in the US without the sensors, computing equipment, and connectivity that could fall foul of American restrictions on Chinese connected vehicles. Waymo installs its own US-developed autonomous-driving system at its factory in Mesa, Arizona.

A Chinese robotaxi with Swedish roots

Calling the Ojai simply a Chinese robotaxi is therefore only half the story. It has surprisingly strong European roots.

When Waymo and Geely announced their partnership in 2021, Waymo explicitly described the vehicle as “designed in Sweden specially for autonomous ride-hailing.” Development was carried out by Geely’s CEVT engineering center in Gothenburg, which later became part of Zeekr’s European development organization.

That explains why the Ojai looks less like a conventional car adapted for autonomous driving and more like a small shuttle. Its flat floor, very low step-in height, large sliding doors, and spacious interior were designed to carry passengers rather than accommodate a driver.

Ownership and manufacturing, however, are Chinese. Zeekr is part of Geely, and its vehicles are produced in China. The autonomous brain comes from California. In that sense, Ojai is best described as Swedish-developed, Chinese-built, and Americanized by Waymo.

Could it eventually come home to Europe?

The Swedish connection becomes particularly interesting because Waymo is already preparing its first European operation. The company is testing autonomously in London with safety specialists behind the wheel and aims to introduce fully autonomous ride-hailing there. More significantly for continental Europe, Waymo said in April that it is expanding its British team, in part to “expand our business in Europe.”

There is no confirmation that Ojai itself will be used in London or elsewhere in Europe. Waymo’s current British test vehicles are Jaguar I-Paces, while the company is also adding US-built Hyundai Ioniq 5s to its American fleet.

Still, the Ojai would be a logical candidate for future European expansion. It was engineered in Gothenburg specifically as a robotaxi; its sixth-generation Waymo Driver is cheaper than the previous system, and the platform was designed to cope with a wider range of weather conditions.

So the circle could eventually close: a robotaxi conceived in Sweden, manufactured in China, and commercialized on the streets of San Francisco could one day find its way back to Europe.