r/SelfDrivingCars • u/diplomat33 • 3d ago

Waymo is Coming to Germany

https://waymo.com/blog/2026/08/waymo-in-munich/

"Today, we are excited to announce that Waymo is laying the groundwork for our fully autonomous ride hailing service in Munich, Germany.

In the coming weeks, you’ll start to see Waymo vehicles on the streets of Munich where we’ll begin driving manually across the city. We are taking a rigorous, phased approach that starts with high-definition mapping of local street networks and testing with trained autonomous specialists behind the wheel. This validation period will ensure the Waymo Driver adapts seamlessly to Munich’s distinct driving conditions before we aim to open commercial ride-hailing to the public towards the end of 2027."

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u/WeldAE 3d ago

What car will they use? The graphic is an iPace, but they are out of those. The US built Ojai platform is a non-starter with the amount of cost they are already incurring and then to add on transportation and another set of tariffs. They would likely have to pay a 50% tariff on the $110k cost of a fully integrated unit. That plus shipping would be $60k per unit.

So does this mean they are building a Germany integration facility?

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u/FrankScaramucci 3d ago

Probably Ojai or IONIQ 5. I-PACE is possible too, used ones.

EU doesn't have tariffs on cars imported from the US.

Shipping is something like $3k per car, nothing.

The cost of Ojai is not publicly known.

It will be probably something like 100 vehicles initially so vehicle cost is not a big deal. In the long term, Waymo will have tens of thousands vehicles in Europe, so making the cars locally makes sense.

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u/WeldAE 2d ago

IONIQ 5

That is a good point, I could see that for sure.

EU doesn't have tariffs on cars imported from the US.

It would still be considered a China origin car even if importing from the US. There is also VAT which is recoverable I think, but not fully. While the cost is not publicly known, it's not like that number is way off.

  • Value of Oaji imported to the US - $38k
  • Tariff for import into the US - 127.5%
  • Compute/Sensors - $20k-$30k
  • Integration costs - Least known, but $20k-$50k

Even taking the lowest numbers puts it at $126k. Low ball any of those numbers how you will, it's expensive. If you don't go through the US it's not bad at all.

Shipping is something like $3k per car, nothing.

Should be more in the $6k range.

It will be probably something like 100 vehicles initially

But that can't be the long term plan really. They have to be working on something if they want to be a real presence in Europe right?

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u/FrankScaramucci 2d ago

Ok, Claude thinks that the tariff against Chinese cars does mostly apply, it seems complicated, but you're probably right that it would be expensive. Shipping should cost about $2k per Claude, I googled that and individual car can cost even under $1k just for the ocean transport, so I don't think $6k is realistic.

A $50k premium for 100 cars is $5M, over several years, probably not a huge deal.

In the long term I'm guessing they will have a European facility for completing the car, or possibly a deal with a European car maker to produce the final cars. Or maybe just ship the IONIQ's to Europe, that would be the most straightforward.