Press an icon in a Waymo Ojai and a voice assistant answers. Google said on August 19 that Gemini now rides inside the robotaxi as an in-car assistant, chatting with passengers while the Waymo Driver does the driving.
Waymo described the feature on its Waypoint blog. The assistant folds cabin controls and general knowledge into a conversational interface, so passengers can change the temperature or music by talking, or ask questions about the vehicle and the trip, instead of hunting for manual controls.
Putting Gemini in the Ojai pairs Alphabet’s two biggest bets on autonomy under one roof, the self-driving stack and the AI assistant, and turns the cabin into a hands-free interface.
For Google, it is another step toward making Gemini a presence in physical spaces, not just screens and browsers.
