Self-driving tech company Waymo announced Monday that it is significantly expanding its autonomous vehicle operations in the US with the opening of a new manufacturing facility in Mesa, Ariz.
Currently, Waymo operates over 1,500 autonomous vehicles in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, Tex., completing more than 250,000 paid trips per week. With the new Mesa facility, the company plans to add 2,000 more vehicles to its fleet by 2026, and expand to cities like Atlanta, Miami and Washington, DC.
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This 239,000-square-foot plant, developed in partnership with Magna, will retrofit Jaguar I-PACE electric SUVs with Waymo’s sixth-generation autonomous driving technology, known as the Waymo Driver. The facility is expected to produce thousands of vehicles annually, accelerating Waymo’s mission to provide fully autonomous ride-hailing services in cities all across the country.
The Mesa facility also introduces streamlined processes that enable vehicles to be ready for passenger service shortly after production. For instance, vehicles assigned to the Phoenix fleet can begin picking up passengers within 30 minutes of leaving the factory.
“The Waymo Driver integration plant in Mesa is the epicenter of our future growth plans,” Ryan McNamara, Waymo vice-president of operations, said in the statement. “With our partners at Magna, we’ve opened a manufacturing site that enables the cost efficiency, flexibility, and capacity to scale our fleet to new heights.”
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