Waymo continues to expand its robotaxi fleet aggressively
Waymo announced a major expansion of its autonomous ride-hailing operations, which is currently providing over 250,000 paid trips each week across Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, with plans to launch in Atlanta, Miami, and Washington, D.C. by 2026.
To meet the growing demand, Waymo said it is investing in a new 239,000-square-foot autonomous vehicle factory in Metro Phoenix, in partnership with Magna International (MGA), which will build thousands of Jaguar I-PACE vehicles equipped with Waymo's fully autonomous technology. The facility, a multi-million dollar investment, has already created hundreds of jobs in Mesa, Arizona, and is designed to scale production rapidly, including the integration of Waymo's sixth-generation Driver on new platforms like the Zeekr RT (ZK).
The factory features automated assembly lines and new efficiencies that allow vehicles to be validated and deployed into service within hours, significantly reducing launch time and cost. When the facility is operating at full capacity, Waymo said it will be capable of building tens of thousands of fully autonomous Waymo vehicles per year.
Waymo's expansion is supported by partnerships with companies like Moove for fleet management and recent collaborations with Toyota (TM) and Hyundai (HYMLF) to bring its technology to more vehicle models. The company's rapid growth is reflected in its ride volume, with long-term projections of tens of millions of rides annually.
The implications for other ride-hailing companies are significant. Waymo's market share gains will be watched by Uber Technologies (UBER) and Lyft (LYFT), while the pace of Tesla's (TSLA) robotaxi rollout and safety record in the U.S. is likely to be compared to Waymo.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) officially started Waymo in December 2016, when it spun off the Google self-driving car project as an independent company under the Alphabet umbrella. The origins of Waymo trace back to 2009, when Google first launched its self-driving car initiative.
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