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But they have not kept them out of Waymo’s fast-growing U.S. robotaxi fleet.

In late May, Alphabet’s self-driving vehicle company began deploying small electric vans, built by China’s Zeekr brand–which it calls the Waymo Ojai–in cities including Los Angeles and San Francisco. At the time, Waymo would only say it had “more than 100” of the friendly-faced, periwinkle-colored minivans on the road. Most industry watchers assumed the Mountain View, California-based company would ultimately operate fewer than 1,000 owing to the excessive import fees. That’s not the case.

Since 2024, Zeekr has shipped more than 3,200 units of its CM1e, its Chinese market name, through the Port of Los Angeles, including over 2,600 so far this year, based on Bills of Lading data compiled by research firm ImportGenius. While Waymo isn’t identified as the recipient, Zeekr doesn’t have any other U.S. partner. If they were imported at the CM1e’s Chinese market price of $39,000, tariffs would drive the cost up to nearly $89,000, excluding the cost of Waymo’s autonomous driving hardware that likely exceeds $10,000.

“The market assumes Waymo’s future with the Ojai is a dead-end due to tariffs on Chinese auto imports; so did we.”

That 3,200 units “is an ‘at least’ figure based on documents sourced directly from U.S. Customs that identify either Zeekr or the model of vehicle,” William George, director of research for ImportGenius, told Forbes. The declared value of the vehicles isn’t included, however.

“The market assumes Waymo’s future with the Ojai is a dead-end due to tariffs on Chinese auto imports; so did we,” Michael Morton, a research analyst with MoffettNathanson, said in a recent investment report. “To be frank, we were surprised by what we found.”

His firm estimates Waymo imports an average of 300 Zeekrs per month, also using data from ImportGenius. That level is “materially higher” than what investors assumed, he said.

Waymo declined to confirm the import tally and how much it’s paying for vehicles.

“At this stage, we are serving early access riders across SF, LA and Phoenix with over 300 Ojais,” said company spokesman Chris Bonelli. “We are already in 11 cities with ambitious plans to serve dozens more, and the Ojai will be a big part of our scaling efforts.”

Certainly the company, which has raised far more than $20 billion since it began as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009, can afford the inflated price of the Ojai, though it complicates the company’s push to lower costs to help achieve profitability. The industry’s leading robotaxi company already operates its commercial service in 11 U.S. cities and is preparing to launch in four more. It’s also taking the service abroad, with testing in Tokyo and London.

Waymo announced plans to add electric vans from Zeekr, a unit of China’s Geely Auto, in late 2021, noting that the model was styled in Sweden with Geely-backed Volvo Cars. But that was before a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs took effect, on top of a standard 2.5% duty on all imported autos, and a 25% feed for certain “strategic” products, including autos, auto parts, aluminum and steel.

Adding 3,200 or more Zeekr models would dramatically expand Waymo’s fleet, which totaled about 3,900 units as of last month, including test vehicles, comprised mainly of electric Jaguar I-Pace SUVs. That product, however, has been discontinued. Along with Zeekrs, Waymo is also preparing to add modified versions of Hyundai Motor’s Ioniq 5 electric hatchback, built at the automaker’s Georgia plant. Waymo currently books more than 500,000 paid rides a week, and is targeting 1 million per week by year-end. If it hits that level, annual revenue in 2027 would top $1 billion based on an estimated average fare of $20 per ride. That’s far beyond what any U.S. competitor is likely to generate. But to do that, it needs a lot more vehicles.

Given that it’s a high-profile partnership for Zeekr, an EV brand owned by China’s Geely Auto, and the excess production capacity of that country’s automakers, Waymo is probably paying far less than the $39,000 charged in China for a CM1e, said Tu Le, managing director of consultancy Sino Auto Insights.

“My guess is they're getting it super cheap from Zeekr–at a big discount,” Le said. “Also, Geely could be eating some of that tariff since Waymo's kind of stuck. Their AV stack was designed specifically for Ojai prior to all these tariffs and connected vehicle restrictions.”

The Waymo model will soon get electric van competition from Amazon’s Zoox, which just received federal permission to operate its purpose-built robotaxis that don’t have steering wheels, pedals or mirrors on public roads. Zoox builds the four-passenger vehicles, with sliding, train-style doors, at a small Silicon Valley factory. They’ll soon begin ferrying paying customers in Las Vegas, with San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities to follow.

While the current number of Ojais on U.S. roads probably isn’t high at the moment, the minivan is already becoming a key platform for both Waymo and Alphabet. Its sliding doors on each side of the vehicle and flat floor make it easier to enter and exit than the Jaguars, and it has a roomier passenger cabin. It’s also using what Waymo calls its 6th-generation hardware set, with improved vision and computing power at 50% less cost than the 5th-generation system used in the I-Pace. Waymo has not, however, confirmed the cost of the new system.

Last week, the company also said it’s integrating Google’s Gemini AI chatbot into the Ojai fleet, activated with the touch of a button in new rear seat screens. It allows riders to use voice commands to control cabin temperature, get information about neighborhoods they’re passing through or even ask the vehicle to pull over.

Tariffs aren’t the only barrier. To ensure compliance with U.S. security laws aimed at Chinese companies, Zeekr units have to come in without any sensors or computing systems, which Waymo installs at its factory in Mesa, Arizona.

“The technology that collects data and makes our vehicles autonomous—the software, sensors, and computing systems—is developed in the U.S.,” spokeswoman Sandy Karp told Forbes. “Waymo installs the autonomous driving technology on stripped-down, disconnected OEM-provided vehicles in our Arizona manufacturing facility.”

To be permitted for use on U.S. roads, Waymo also has to ensure the Zeekrs have been crash-tested and meet federal safety standards. “We prioritize partners who share our obsession with safety,” she said. “Every vehicle in our fleet is chosen for its high safety rating and structural integrity.”

Given that the partnership was formed about six years ago, it’s likely Waymo didn’t want to scrap the deal, even with the tariffs, because it’s been tailoring its system for the Ojai, said analyst Le.

“They may have done a calculation and said, ‘for us to redesign the entire hardware stack for a similar vehicle that offers the flexibility that Ojai does, and the space, it might end up costing us something like $100,000 per vehicle if we switched to an electric van like the Volkswagen ID. Buzz,” he said. “That’s a heavy lift.”

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Skubal got the news on Saturday night during the Tigers’ 8-6 win over the Athletics and was emotional after the game as he prepared to leave the team that drafted him in 2018 and developed him into a pitching star to join the World Series champions for the past two years.

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“I’m excited to be a Dodger,” he said. “I’m excited to get down there and meet all those guys and chase three championships in a row. That’s hard to do, so I’m so excited to be a part of that. But it’s a lot of different emotions. Definitely kind of a roller-coaster a little bit.”

Skubal is the latest star to join the high-priced roster for the Dodgers, which already has big-name players like Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Mookie Betts.

If everyone is healthy, he could be part of a rotation with Ohtani, reigning World Series MVP Yamamoto, fellow two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. The Dodgers lead the majors with a 3.36 ERA from their starting pitchers and now add Skubal to the mix.

The Dodgers are in first place in the National League West and before adding Skubal were already the favourites to become the first team to three-peat since the New York Yankees from 1998 to 2000.

ESPN first reported the deal and said the Tigers would receive three minor league prospects in right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith and outfielder Zyhir Hope.

Skubal is eligible for free agency after the World Series in October. He has a $32m annual salary, a record total in arbitration after the team offered $19m, and is expected to sign an enormous contract in the off-season.

The 29-year-old left-handed pitcher said in July that it was his preference to finish the season with the Tigers and to compete for a World Series championship, which has eluded the franchise since 1984. Skubal said it was “very tough” to leave the Tigers having fallen short of the goal of winning a title.

Skubal is 7-5 this season with a 2.79 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 96 2/3 innings. He is 61-42 with a 3.04 ERA over seven seasons, all in Detroit. In two postseasons, Skubal is 2-1 with a 2.04 ERA in six starts.

Skubal had a minimally invasive surgery on May 6 to remove a loose body from his pitching elbow and returned to pitch on June 13.

“The way the surgery went is exactly how it was supposed to go,” he said in July. %!s()

The idea that artificial intelligence will be free to use and virtually costless to provide is delusional and dumb, Steve Hanke says.

"This belief is based on a disconnect from reality, as well as a good dose of idiotic economic reasoning," the professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University told Business Insider by email.

"AI is incredibly costly; it is very resource intensive," Hanke continued. "It requires huge amounts of water, power, and physical capital" like graphics chips, he added.

Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta have projected roughly $700 billion in combined capital expenditures this year, and $1 trillion in 2027, as they race to build out the data centers needed to power the next generation of AI models.

Hanke, who served on President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers, also addressed widespread concerns that AI will cause massive job destruction.

"Businesses will not be firing everybody and replacing them with AI," he said, because in many cases that will be a lot more expensive than employing humans.

The veteran economist took aim at AI visionaries, describing many of them as "charlatans and hucksters." He said they're "comparing apples and oranges" when they liken AI to software, as providing AI to customers costs money whereas software, once developed, can be sold countless times at virtually no additional cost.

Hanke predicted the "cost of scarce resources that are gobbled up by AI will decide how far the 'AI revolution' goes."

AI optimists have countered that technological advances will make microchips and data centers more power-efficient over time, bringing down the cost of AI.

Elon Musk has made waves for predicting that AI will supercharge productivity and drive down production costs, ushering in an era of abundance where "anyone can have whatever stuff they want."

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has recommended people stop saving for retirement in 10 or 20 years as "money won't matter." Personal finance and AI experts previously told Business Insider they resoundingly disagreed with Musk's advice.

Musk has predicted AI will take over most jobs, and the "best way" for governments to deal with the resulting unemployment is to provide a "universal high income" by mailing checks to everyone.

Mounting concerns about AI

Hanke has been skeptical of AI for a while, describing it to Business Insider in February as "overhyped and potentially dangerous."

Last fall, Hanke said the AI boom could falter if Big Tech companies failed to hit their numbers, and said it "might be wise to buckle your seat belt."

Mark Cuban, the former "Shark Tank" investor, and Michael Burry of "The Big Short" fame warned this week about the massive scale of AI spending and Nvidia's key role in financing it, underlining Hanke's concern about how much the technology costs.

Cuban said it was "truly scary" how central Nvidia is to the AI boom, and cautioned it "all could crumble" if the chipmaker gets outcompeted or makes a mistake.

Burry said Nvidia was "overreaching" in its campaign to strike deals with customers to support its chip sales, and its efforts threatened to "push the circular spending to biblical proportions."

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Theron Mohamed

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Theron Mohamed is a London-based correspondent on the Trending team at Business Insider. His coverage spans finance, investing, wealth, markets, and the economy.Theron joined BI in 2019 as a reporter at Markets Insider and rose to the rank of correspondent before moving to the Trending team in 2024. He previously covered tech, media, and telecom stocks for Investors Chronicle magazine and had a brief stint on the Financial Times' Data team. He interned at the Wall Street Journal in New York where he primarily wrote for Heard on the Street.Theron has freelanced for The Independent, The Telegraph, WIRED, and several smaller publications. He holds an undergraduate degree in geography from the London School of Economics, and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.Theron often covers Warren Buffett, Michael Burry, Jeremy Grantham and other top-flight investors. He also writes about the world's wealthiest people and shares financial advice from all manner of rich and successful people.Email Theron at [email protected] and follow him on X @theron_mohamed.Expertise

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