We all love a good bit of identify-that-car, and a recent addition to the roads has opened up another round of this game. People have been spotting weird vans being trailered on the streets of Los Angeles and Arizona, and often aren’t quite sure what they are. As an email from reader Steve goes, “It’s not often I see cars I don’t recognize, but I was on the 91 West in Corona, CA at about 11 AM on Tuesday and saw these four identical cars on a carrier.”
They certainly don’t look like anything we’re used to, what with their plunging greenhouses and flat noses, but they aren’t camouflaged, they don’t sport familiar badges, and they definitely feature U.S.-spec side markers. So what are these things? Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that they’re definitely identifiable. The bad news is that you won’t be able to buy one.
See, these are Zeekrs. What’s a Zeekr? It’s a car brand owned by Chinese automaker Geely, and the marque’s first mainstream appearance in America comes through partnership with Waymo, the robotaxi company. While Waymo has been using Jaguar I-Pace EVs (and, before that, Chrysler Pacificas) for the overwhelming majority of its autonomous taxis, Jaguar isn’t making them anymore, and dedicated robotaxis rather than modified existing models always seemed like the logical end goal.
While we’ve previously spotted camouflaged examples of the RT roaming around, this is our best look yet of it on the streets of America, and it looks pretty great. The idea of using electric vans for ridesharing just makes sense, and not only does the Zeekr RT look practical, it also goes above and beyond the basic brief by incorporating some novel elements into its design.
For one, it doesn’t have a normal B-pillar, and it features sliding front and rear doors. The result is a vehicle that really opens up, with minimal room required to open the doors in tight spaces yet the promise of good access to the various seats inside. Of course, the front wheels need to be pointed straight for the front sliding doors to open without hitting the tires, but the fact that this is an autonomous vehicle should be a safeguard against the car, well, crashing into itself in a way.
Ah yes, autonomy. See, some of the white protective wrap seen on these vehicles in transit covers up mounting areas for sensors such as Lidar units, which is why these spied units don’t look quite like official photos. Once kitted up with all the necessary gear, the Zeekr RT should be able to operate autonomously within geofenced areas, functioning as a taxi for those who wish to have a robot take the wheel.
Currently, Waymo operates in Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, so with this latest iteration of robotaxis arriving on U.S. soil undisguised, don’t be surprised to see these vans in service relatively soon. Weirdly, this might be the first time many Americans get to experience a Chinese EV, although it’s not exactly a driving experience with the van itself putting in all the work.
Because of increased tariff costs, it’s possible that Waymo uses another platform in the future–the company has recently announced a partnership with Toyota to cover at least Japan. However, the 100% tariff on Chinese-built EVs was already in place from the Biden Administration, likely before many of these vehicles were imported.
[Hat-tip to Steve!]
Top graphic credit: Griffin Riley
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We’ve seen these tested and driven by human drivers around SF for a few months now. Expect they’ll be an improvement on the Jags, which are showing some wear.
Love this!
I want one I can drive!
Seems like the CANOO thing that recently died would have been an alternative for it’s home state of California.
If you’re gonna build a robotaxi, might as well make it as practical as you can. This thing is basically a box on wheels and those sliding doors are a neat idea. Meanwhile the purpose-built Cybercab has *checks notes* seating for…two.
The *design model of a low-cost base model that was collecting dust in a warehouse so Musk rolled it out to talk about Taxis to draw attention from their huge profit drop before saying that they’ll be rolling out the first Cybercabs with human drivers which makes them *checks notes* just a taxi* has seating for two.
While the cyber cab also looks poorly designed for what it’s supposed to be, I can’t fault only having two seats; cabs are covered from 5 seat cars with the front passenger seat usually not usable. It’s incredibly rare for me to take a cab with another person, and besides, who wants to sit middle seat in a cab?
Depends. Am I sharing the cab with the Swedish bikini team?
No B pillar? Sliding front doors?
Gee, you forgot to put in a picture with the doors open.
There, I fixed it.
Pretty neat, but I am curious about opening them after an accident.
That front seat doesn’t look particularly accessible
I think is that photo they are showing how you can slide it forward to fit lots of cargo. Other photos show it slid back, but they were all photos of it painted white, and that’s unacceptable
Guess Waymo can afford to pay the tariffs on these. or they were bought before they were applied, or they cut a deal. Otherwise, it should be Zeekr and ye shall be fined.
groan
They could be Temporarly Importated under Bond (TIB), which is a temporary importation of goods under bond, not imported for sale or sale on approval, without payment of duty with the intent to export or destroy the goods within a certain period of time, not to exceed three years from the date of importation.
How long does a taxi last anyway?
Good info. As to how long a taxi lasts … if the Autopian Taxi is any example, the jury is out.
The front end makes me think of a Ghast from Minecraft. Goddamn fireball-spewing assholes!
Is it right next to you or the next chunk over? What a fun surprise!
I see Waymos in Austin all the time.
Not to be too pedantic, but the EPA certificate for these is identifying them as the Zeekr CM1e.
“The bad news is that you won’t be able to buy one.”
Well, “you” can buy one as long as “you” is Waymo. Even the Cruise AVs were sold and registered to Cruise, which is why they would show up in registration reports. Waymo won’t be able to operate these Zeekrs on manufacturer’s plates if they’re taking fares.
But assume though you’re already preemptively getting them into the NAPA system, right?
You would be correct, sir. 😉
The consumer Zeekr Mix is codenamed CM2E, so I’m assuming that CM1E is the RT’s codename; I guess the name RT doesn’t really matter when it’s gonna be called a Waymo anyways.
I think it’s kinda dumb that some of these sensors aren’t integrated into the vehicle better when it was explicitly designed as an autonomous taxi.
The Zeekr Mix (consumer variant of the RT seen here) has 1 LiDAR and 5 mmWave radars as standard, and only there’s only a small LiDAR roof bump. It’s Robosense solid-state LiDAR is likely either 128 or 192 lines in resolution, has an FoV of at least 120°, and a range of 250m. Most cars have 3 mmWave radars already (2x side-rear for BLIS, 1x forward ACC), and the extra 2 on the Mix are most likely in the front fenders to cover the LiDAR’s blind spots.
The Waymo RT seems to have a big spinny LiDAR that might have FoV advantages and maybe a higher line resolution so I get it, but I don’t get why the front and rear side mmWave radars and cameras need these huge tumorous modules when 100s of production cars can do the same far more elegantly. Maybe it’s for upgradeability, but I feel like there are better solutions to handle that. It’s not only unsightly, but it also significantly increases drag.
I suspect that they are still under development and being to change stuff out has a higher priority than sleekness.
They do sort of look like the loudspeakers on a ski boat.
There is also the benefit of having taxis stand out from other vehicles. NYC accomplished this with yellow paint but Waymo is going a different route with plain white vehicles that look like they came from an unfortunate Cars / Elephant Man crossover that Pixar never should have greenlit.
Could they just be trying to match the type and quantity of sensors installed to the Waymo Jaguar I-Pace fleet to minimize the differences in the programming between the Zeeker and the I-Pace?
I’m not imagining that drag is much of a consideration for a primarily secondary street robotaxi application?
When Gary Busey gets elected president in 2028, he’ll make the Chinese tariffs be in the negative percents and you’ll see these everywhere.
At first I laughed and then I was like “Sure, why not?”
Yeah, fine, whatever.
China is kind of like a huge North Korea with a lot more people and resources to get things done. Do we want to economically support a regime which requires everyone to be part of it and tracks and controls their expression of opinions? If Chinese cars are kosher, then why not imports from North Korea?
Just food for thought. Ya gotta draw the line somewhere. I draw the line at Korean cars (not for political reasons, but based on personal experience and people that I know who have had bad experiences with them).
The company I work for has several South Korean cars. They are exponentially better than the Fords we used to use.
That could be true. Ford has put out some really awful junk on occasion.
Korea has made some good cars, and some that did not live up to people’s expectations.
Mostly because when you open the engine bay on your DPRK import, there’s a guy in there pedaling!
DPRK is North Korea. They aren’t sending us any cars, but if they did and someone stowed away in one, it would not be surprising!
I haven’t run across any DPRK vehicles yet, but likely because no one wants one.
I saw some Indian electric cars in California that I’m not sure how they got here.
They looked good, until you climbed inside.
They had less crash protection than a bike.
All this import talk made me finally realize I have actually driven a kei car cross country.
Going to Colorado, of all places!
.
At least it looks better with waymos heavy sensor suite. The i-pace looked like it had some kind of condition. Zeeker fits them very clean and modern interiors
USA!
Land of the Free!!
(No, you can’t buy those here)
Whoever told you that is your enemy.
Now something must be done about all these tariffs on cars and fun! Wait, it requires an app to enter? I DON’T NEED THE KEY, WE’LL BREAK IN.
I’m sure you got no patience now, but I think I hear some kind of Tool coming right up…
As we move into ’32, still in an SUV without a view
zeekr zailor zoldier zpy
If they’re legal for the street the only reason you can’t buy one is because zeekr won’t sell them to you.
It may just be me seeing things, but I kinda feel there’s elements of Google’s original self driving car from way back in the design.
They all need googly eyes anyway.