Waymo opens Ojai robotaxi to all riders in LA, Phoenix, San Francisco
Autonomous driving and drone delivery are both scaling hard — one rolls out a next-gen fleet, the other pushes into 500 neighborhoods by year-end.
Waymo's next-generation robotaxi, the Ojai, is now open to all riders in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. The cheaper-to-build vehicle — a Zeekr minivan fitted with Waymo's sixth-generation self-driving system and Google's Gemini AI as an in-car assistant — represents the company's biggest push toward mass scale and profitability. Waymo currently has about 300 Ojais in its commercial fleet and is on pace to import 5,000 by the end of 2026, according to MoffettNathanson, which tracks shipments. Riders in the three cities will be matched with the new vehicle when they hail a ride, with Denver, Las Vegas, and San Diego planned for later this year. The Ojai replaces the aging Jaguar I-Pace fleet, which has been more of a stopgap while Waymo prepared a purpose-built robotaxi — though tariffs on Chinese-built vehicles have added cost to every unit that crosses the Pacific.
The scale-up is striking. MoffettNathanson counted 725 Ojai vehicles entering the country in July alone, more than double the current Jaguar fleet's total. Waymo now operates in 11 U.S. cities, and the modular design of the sixth-generation system means the self-driving tech can eventually work across multiple vehicle types — not just the Ojai minivan. Gemini's integration as a ride assistant also signals Waymo's intent to make the in-car experience more than just transportation, bringing Google's AI directly into the passenger cabin.
Amazon announced it will expand Prime Air drone delivery to nearly 500 cities and towns by year-end, a sixfold increase from its current 10-city footprint. The company is launching in Chicago, Cleveland, Atlanta, Syracuse, and Boise, with more to follow. Each Prime Air site covers roughly 175 square miles with delivery times of 30 to 60 minutes. Amazon's expansion comes as Walmart — working with Wing and Zipline — has surpassed 1 million drone deliveries and plans to expand to more than 270 stores by 2027. Zipline also just partnered with Uber to scale to 1 million deliveries per day by 2029.
The rapid growth is testing community tolerance. Amazon's drones have been involved in several safety incidents — including collisions with a construction crane in Arizona and an apartment building in Texas — that triggered FAA and NTSB investigations. Noise complaints are mounting in neighborhoods under flight paths, with some residents reporting drones passing over their homes multiple times a day. Privacy concerns are also surfacing, though Amazon says its drones use onboard cameras only for navigation and obstacle detection, with no live human monitoring.
What to watch: The FAA's capacity to regulate drone density in residential areas will shape whether these expansion targets hold — and whether communities push back hard enough to slow the rollout.
Should drone delivery companies be required to get community approval before flying over residential neighborhoods? Tell us in the comments.
Sources: TechCrunch · Ars Technica
