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Waymo is in the midst of a nationwide blitz. Already operational in San Fransisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Atlanta and Austin, the robotaxi giant has expansion plans for a score of global cities, including my home of San Diego. And we’re not just getting those run-down old Jaguar I-Paces or everyday Hyundai Ioniq 5s. Nope, it sounds like San Diego is getting the purpose-built Zeekr RT robotaxis when the service launches next year.

I spotted one at my local Electrify America station recently. It’s only the second time I’ve seen a Waymo test vehicle in San Diego, the other being an I-Pace many months ago. In both cases, the cars had humans behind the wheel, but both can and do operate autonomously with human safety driver supervision. 

In the flesh, the Zeekr RT looks great. While the sensor array is still overwhelming and ungainly, it’s integrated into the RT far better than it is on the I-Pace. That’s the beauty of designing the product specifically for ride-sharing.

So, too, are the sliding doors, which should help avoid run-ins with cyclists and other cars. It was also interesting to see a Combined Charging System (CCS) port on it, rather than a Tesla-style North American Charging System (NACS) plug.

My favorite bit, however, was the Waymo’s little cleaning ritual. Shortly after being plugged in, with no one inside, the car seemed to automatically engage its sensor cleaning process. All of its cameras and lidars got little spritzes of windshield wiper fluid, with some of them having tiny, two-inch windshield wipers to clear their views.

That’s quite a process, when you consider that the RT has three cameras, four lidar, six radar units and a microphone array, per TechCrunch. That’s a lot of washer fluid.   

The automatic cleaning process is a key advancement as Waymo pushes into the snowbelt. The company plans to launch in Detroit next year, its first major market that regularly experiences serious snow. Waymo says it’s been testing in places like Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Buffalo, New York to train its Driver to handle snowy conditions, and I’m confident that its artificial intelligence will figure that out.

But if you want to feed the brain good information, you need to be able to see in any weather, and these little wipers are key to that. 

That’ll rarely be necessary in sunny San Diego. But the Zeekr’s striking design, light blue livery, sliding doors and easy-to-enter rear seat should make it a good fit for taxi service. Service will begin in San Diego next year, Waymo says, though we don’t know exactly when. For that matter, despite Waymo having plans for deployment in 20 cities, we don’t know which is next, or what will be the first one to use Zeekr RTs.

Contact the author: Mack.Hogan@insideevs.com.