Made in China, Powered in America: The Waymo Ojai and the Paradox of Tech Decoupling

On May 28, 2026, Waymo unveiled the Ojai — its first purpose-built autonomous vehicle. The pale blue minivan will begin offering free rides to the public in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix within weeks.

Here is what makes the Ojai extraordinary: its body is manufactured in China by Zeekr, a subsidiary of Geely. Its AI brain is designed, installed, and operated by Waymo in the United States.

This comes as the U.S. government imposes 100% tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and begins a phased ban on Chinese-connected vehicle technology from American roads — software banned by 2027, hardware by 2029.

America’s most advanced self-driving company relies on a Chinese-manufactured body, while Washington tries to decouple from Chinese automotive technology. That is not a contradiction. It is the shape of things to come.

Part I: The Vehicle — Ojai Technical Deep-Dive

Evolution of Waymo’s Fleet

Waymo’s vehicle strategy has evolved through three generations:

The shift from retrofitted passenger vehicles to purpose-built autonomous platforms is a critical inflection point. Retrofitting is expensive, structurally suboptimal, and hard to scale. Purpose-built vehicles unlock the economics of scale that autonomous ride-hailing needs to become viable.

Hardware Configuration (6th-Gen Waymo Driver)

The Ojai carries the 6th generation of Waymo’s self-driving system, announced in February 2026. The sensor suite includes: 13 cameras, 6 radar systems, and 4 lidar sensors. The system fuses inputs from all three modalities — a design principle Waymo has maintained since its earliest prototypes.

Key improvements over the 5th generation include: modular architecture for multi-platform compatibility, improved cold-weather performance, faster charging, and lower per-unit production costs. Waymo VP Satish Jeyachandran described the system as “designed for long-term growth across multiple vehicle platforms.”

Purpose-Built Cabin Design

The Ojai interior reflects its mission: flat floors for accessibility, low step-in height, grab bars, and a modular interior designed for rapid cleaning between passengers. The vehicle retains a steering wheel — not because Waymo expects human drivers, but because current regulations require it.

The interior is notably more spacious than the Jaguar I-Pace, reflecting the design philosophy shift from “adapt a car for autonomy” to “build a robotaxi from scratch.”

Part II: Supply Chain Anatomy

China: Zeekr’s Manufacturing Role

Zeekr was founded in 2021 as Geely’s premium EV brand. It sells cars in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America — but explicitly not the United States. The 100% tariff on Chinese EVs makes a consumer-market entry prohibitively expensive.

Zeekr’s role in the Ojai project is precise and limited: it manufactures the “base vehicle” — a body shell stripped of all telematics and connectivity hardware. No Chinese-designed communication modules. No Chinese-sourced software. A chassis and a shell.

The base vehicle is manufactured in Zeekr’s Zhejiang province factory, then shipped by ocean freight to Waymo’s facility in Arizona.

United States: Waymo’s Integration

In Arizona, Waymo installs its American-designed sensor suite, computing stack, and software. All data processing and communication happens on U.S.-based infrastructure. Waymo insists that no Chinese-connected technology enters the vehicle at any point in the process.

The target: tens of thousands of autonomous-ready vehicles annually, per Waymo spokesperson Sandy Karp.

Cost Structure Implications

The economic logic is compelling. Retrofitting existing vehicles is expensive and does not scale. Purpose-built platforms, especially those leveraging China’s advanced EV manufacturing ecosystem, offer a lower per-unit cost structure. For a business that needs hundreds of thousands of vehicles to achieve unit economics, this matters enormously.

Part III: The Legal Labyrinth

The Regulatory Framework

The Biden administration’s January 2025 rule established a phased ban on Chinese and Russian connected vehicle technology: software banned starting 2027, hardware by 2029. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo justified the rule with stark language: “Imagine if thousands of Chinese-connected vehicles on American roads could be disabled simultaneously by someone in Beijing.”

Waymo’s Legal Argument

Waymo submitted formal comments to the Commerce Department arguing that the Ojai does not meet the definition of a “Chinese-connected vehicle.” The core reasoning: Zeekr supplies only a base vehicle with no telematics, no connectivity, and no data transmission capability. All connected technology is American-designed, American-manufactured, and American-installed.

The Commerce Department did not respond. That silence is the foundation of Waymo’s current operating assumption.

Political Blowback

Not everyone is comfortable with this arrangement. At a February 2026 Congressional hearing, a Republican senator criticized Waymo for “getting in bed with China.” The 2026 midterm elections could shift the political winds: a Republican-controlled Congress may push for tighter restrictions on Chinese manufacturing involvement in American technology.

The CPUC Review Pending

Waymo still needs the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to authorize commercial fares for the Ojai. A decision is expected by June 27, 2026. The CPUC’s review includes broader safety concerns: unaccompanied minors, disaster response protocols, and power outage preparedness — all informed by the December 2025 San Francisco blackout that left every Waymo vehicle stranded.

Part IV: Growth Ambition vs. Operational Reality

The Expansion Trajectory

Waymo has expanded from 5 cities to 11 U.S. cities in 18 months. Highway service launched in late 2025, enabling airport connectivity and faster cross-city routes. International expansion is planned for London and Tokyo, with 20+ new regions on the roadmap. The 2026 year-end target: 1 million paid rides per week.

The May 2026 Crisis Cluster

In the same week the Ojai was unveiled, Waymo suspended services in multiple cities:

Structural Edge Cases

These failures point to deeper challenges. Flooding is a perception problem: the system does not reliably distinguish deep water from drivable surface. Construction zones are a prediction problem: the system cannot reliably anticipate temporary changes in road geometry. Power outages are a systems-design problem: the fleet has no fallback when external infrastructure fails.

Part V: The Deep Narrative — Rethinking “Made in China” in the AI Era

Zeekr’s Invisible Presence

Through the Ojai, Zeekr achieves a de facto U.S. market presence without formally entering it. Its vehicles will operate daily on California and Arizona roads. American passengers will sit in Chinese-manufactured cabins and experience Chinese engineering quality — without buying a Chinese-branded car.

This is a novel market entry strategy: validation through operational presence rather than consumer sales.

“Chinese Body + Local AI” as a Global Model

The Ojai model diverges from the Apple-Foxconn paradigm. In Apple’s model, the brand controls everything and manufacturing is a hidden capability. In the Ojai model, both sides retain independent core competencies. Waymo owns the intelligence; Zeekr owns the manufacturing. Each is a leader in its domain.

This structure may become the standard for autonomous vehicle supply chains globally. If “intelligence” becomes the primary differentiator, the question of who manufactures the physical platform matters less — or at least differently.

Implications for Trade Policy

The decoupling narrative assumes clean technological borders. The Ojai demonstrates that AI-enabling hardware — body, chassis, battery — is difficult to decouple from the AI itself. A tariff can block a Chinese-branded consumer car, but it cannot easily block a Chinese-manufactured platform designed to carry American AI.

This is not a loophole in the traditional sense. It is a structural feature of a globalized technology supply chain that policy has not yet learned to regulate.

Part VI: Scenarios and Open Questions

Scenario Analysis

Open Questions

Who is liable when a Zeekr-bodied, Waymo-brained vehicle crashes? How do different legal frameworks handle this? If Waymo enters London with the Ojai, will UK regulators treat the Chinese manufacturing origin differently from U.S. regulators? And most pointedly: if the Ojai succeeds operationally, does that weaken the narrative of Chinese manufacturing as a national security threat?

Conclusion: The Paradox as a Window

The Ojai is not just a new vehicle. It is a stress test for globalization in the AI era. Three takeaways:

  1. Legal creativity matters. The technical distinction between “vehicle shell” and “connected vehicle” may define trade policy for a generation.
  2. Manufacturing still matters. In the most advanced AI application, physical production capability remains a strategic asset.
  3. Decoupling is harder than it sounds. Technological interdependence runs deeper than policy can easily sever.

The pale blue minivans will soon carry passengers through Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix. Each ride is a small experiment in whether the world’s two largest economies can simultaneously compete and cooperate. That is the story of the next decade, told through one robotaxi.

References

  1. A. Marshall, “Here Comes Ojai, Waymo’s New Chinese-Made Robotaxi,” WIRED, 2026-05-28.
  2. S. O’Kane, “Waymo halts freeway rides after robotaxis struggle in construction zones,” TechCrunch, 2026-05-21.
  3. S. O’Kane, “Waymo expands pause to four cities as robotaxis keep driving into floods,” TechCrunch, 2026-05-21.
  4. A. Marshall, “Waymo Finds a Way Around US Restrictions Targeting Chinese Cars,” WIRED, 2025-01-17.
  5. A. Marshall, “Waymo’s New Agreement With Hyundai Raises Questions About China,” WIRED, 2024-10-04.
  6. A. Marshall, “Emergency First Responders Say Waymos Are Getting Worse,” WIRED, 2026.
  7. TechCrunch, “Waymo explains why its robotaxis got stuck during the SF blackout,” 2025-12-24.
  8. Waymo Blog, “6th-Gen Waymo Driver,” S. Jeyachandran, 2026-02.
  9. TechCrunch, “Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways,” 2025-11-12.