TL;DR
Waymo's Texas fleet jumped 49% in three weeks to 1,102 vehicles, powered by a Chinese-built minivan it is betting will unlock mass-scale profitability, even as tariffs erode the cost advantage.
What happened
- 49% fleet growth in Texas in roughly three weeks: Waymo went from about 700 vehicles at end of August to 1,102 registered in Texas as of September 24, 2026.
- The surge is driven by the Ojai minivan, a modified Zeekr RT built on Geely's SEA-M platform, which now makes up about a third of Waymo's Texas fleet.
- Waymo's total U.S. fleet sits near 4,000 robotaxis across 15 cities, up from 3 cities in September 2024, with 500,000 paid rides per week.
- 80% of the fleet is concentrated in California and Texas, with the remaining roughly 800 vehicles spread across Arizona, Florida, and other states.
- Research firm MoffettNathanson projects 5,100 Ojai imports into the U.S. by year-end, based on shipping records.
Why it matters
- The Ojai is Waymo's cost-reduction vehicle: lower unit economics are supposed to accelerate the path to profitability, but steep China-origin tariffs are currently canceling those savings.
- Waymo is absorbing the tariff hit anyway, signaling that scaling fleet size now outweighs near-term margin pressure in its strategic calculus.
- Texas expansion follows a partnership with Uber launched in Austin in March 2025, then spread to Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, giving Waymo a distribution channel without building its own rider base from scratch.
- The Ojai carries Google's Gemini AI as an in-car assistant and Waymo's sixth-generation self-driving system, tying Alphabet's broader AI stack directly into the consumer robotaxi experience.
- Florida and Las Vegas are next in line for Ojai deployments, meaning the 15-city footprint is likely to deepen before it widens further.
What to watch next
- Whether MoffettNathanson's 5,100-unit import forecast holds: any slowdown in Zeekr shipments would signal tariff pressure is becoming unmanageable.
- Waymo's unit economics disclosure: the company has not published per-ride cost data; any investor communication that reveals margin trends on Ojai versus Jaguar I-Pace will be a key signal.
- Competitor response in Texas: the state's regulatory environment and Uber partnership give Waymo a structural advantage, but Tesla's planned Austin robotaxi rollout makes Texas the primary battleground to watch.
Originally published on Present of AI, a daily source-linked AI news timeline. Read the full timeline or browse the open dataset.