Waymo has ordered thousands of Chinese-built electric vehicles to rapidly expand its nationwide robotaxi fleet – an aggressive gambit that’s stoking concerns about national security and fair competition among US lawmakers, The Post has learned.
The Alphabet-owned company’s powder-blue “Ojai” vans – now on the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix and aimed for Denver, Las Vegas and San Diego this fall – are a rebranded version of a vehicle made by Zeekr, a unit of the Chinese Communist Party-linked Geely Holding Group.
Waymo is on pace to import about 5,100 Ojai vehicles by the end of this year – more than doubling its current fleet, which mostly consists of Jaguar I-Pace SUVs, according to tracking data from research firm MoffettNathanson. The Jaguars are imported from a plant in Austria and outfitted with Waymo’s self-driving tech in Arizona.
The deluge is coming despite the fact that the Commerce Department has banned the import or sale of any “connected vehicles” or self-driving software made in China or Russia starting in model year 2027. Legislation to formalize a ban is currently under consideration in both chambers of Congress.
Waymo says it complies with federal rules by only sourcing physical vehicles from Zeekr and then adding its own sensors and self-driving software at a plant in Arizona. However, critics say the tie-up remains a glaring economic and national security risk.
Missy Cummings, a former senior safety advisor at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration whom Elon Musk once accused of being “extremely biased against Tesla,” told The Post that Waymo’s “carefully curated” attempt to explain away the Zeekr deal is insufficient.
She also raised doubts about Waymo’s assurances that the Zeekr chassis are totally free of Chinese tech.
“I would have to get in and look at the physical construct of the car to know that that’s absolutely true,” said Cummings, director of George Mason University’s Autonomy and Robotics Center. “It’s very possible that the Chinese have layered in other sensors that are recording data and sending it back to China.”
Zeekr, Geely’s luxury vehicle brand, doubled its global sales to 251,000 vehicles as of August. While the bulk of those sales were in China, Zeekr has recently eyed expansion into new markets like Europe and Latin America.
Waymo’s Zeekr deal poses a dilemma for DC policymakers, well-placed sources told The Post. US auto executives have warned that cheap Chinese cars pose a major threat to Elon Musk’s Tesla and Detroit’s Big 3 carmakers. But lawmakers also want to avoid hamstringing Waymo, a frontrunner in the global self-driving car race.
A Waymo spokesperson pushed back on Cummings’ claims, noting that all of its vehicles undergo rigorous, cutting-edge security testing to protect the company’s trade secrets.
Waymo does not share any data it collects on US-based consumers with Zeekr or any other base vehicle manufacturer, the spokesperson added. In addition, Waymo does not license its software to Zeekr, share its source code, or allow any transfer of its algorithms or AI models.
Waymo’s Ojais are among the few Chinese-made vehicles on the road in the US, where government rules and tariffs of 127.5% have essentially shut China out. Polestar, an electric maker that’s majority-owned by Zeekr parent Geely, was barred in June from selling new cars in the US, though existing vehicles can still operate.
Even with the tariffs, TechTimes estimated it costs Waymo between $98,000 to $115,000 to combine a Zeekr-made vehicle chassis with its sensors – compared to an estimated $200,000 for Waymo’s Jaguar I-Pace robotaxis.
The Waymo spokesperson said the firm’s decision to source vehicles from Zeekr dates back to 2019. At the time, US manufacturers were reluctant to work with Waymo due to competing self-driving car projects, leaving with company with little choice but to source vehicles from China to keep its expansion on track, the spokesperson said.
The Commerce Department’s rules ban the import or sale of any “connected vehicles” or self-driving software made in China or Russia beginning in model year 2027. A similar ban on connected vehicle hardware, such as telematics control units and Bluetooth, cell, satellite and Wi-Fi modules, takes effect for model year 2030.
DC insiders who spoke to The Post pointed to recent examples where gaps in the supply chain have been weaponized to great effect.
In September, Trump officials revealed that a Chinese shipping firm, COSCO, had been using concealed equipment on its ships to spy on military communications – including those of the US, Reuters reported. Elsewhere, Israel turned heads around the world in 2024 when it surreptitiously rigged thousands of pagers used by Hezbollah to explode.
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) are co-sponsoring a bipartisan bill that would close the loophole that enabled Waymo’s Zeekr deal by banning the import of any vehicle manufactured in China – even if a US company adds their own software and sensors after the fact.
In the House, China Select Committee Chair John Moolenaar has introduced companion legislation.
Moolenaar outlined nightmare scenarios that could arise from having more Chinese-made vehicles on US roads during a hearing last December – warning that “hidden malware could disable fleets of cars and trucks or turn them into battering rams on wheels.”
“China cheats on trade and threatens our national security,” Moolenaar said in a statement. “We cannot allow its vehicles into our country, or it will use that opportunity to bankrupt US companies, cause massive job losses, undermine the security of our infrastructure, and hollow out the foundation of our nation’s manufacturing base. The total effect would leave our country more dependent on China for everything we need.”
Both bills provide an off ramp for Waymo in the form of a three-year grace period in which the company can phase out its Chinese-made vehicles. If it becomes law, the bill would require Waymo to come into compliance by 2030.
In a statement to The Post, Moreno said allowing the import of “Chinese cars would be a cancer to the American market as these CCP subsidized predators are rapidly dominating global markets as Western governments are too weak to fight back.
“My top priority is protecting our American auto industry and auto workers from unfair foreign predators by sealing off the border permanently and avoiding the peril of globalization – the future of the American auto industry depends on it,” Moreno added.
A Waymo spokesperson said the company “strongly supports the Department of Commerce’s BIS connected vehicle rule and legislative efforts to address the national security concerns about foreign connected vehicle technology.”
“For any base vehicle Waymo uses, Waymo actively takes steps to ensure that they are in compliance with the government’s connected vehicle rules,” the Waymo spokesperson said in a statement.
“Additionally, Waymo does not share personally identifiable information about Waymo riders, Waymo vehicle telemetry data, or data collected through Waymo’s automated driving system with vehicle manufacturers.”