For years, Waymo has been tight-lipped regarding the precise number of Jaguar I-Pace electric vehicles within their self-driving car fleet—this count includes both test units and those utilized in public ride-sharing services. However, on Monday, the Alphabet subsidiary decided to shed some light specifically on the size of the operational vehicle pool they use for their commercial endeavors.
Waymo said Monday, as part of an extensive announcement It boasts over 1,500 commercially operational robotaxis. Additionally, they are working on expansion through a substantial multimillion-dollar investment with Magna to construct more than 2,000 self-driving I-Pace vehicles at a newly established plant in Arizona.
For several years, Waymo has collaborated with Magna, particularly at a previously operational site in Detroit. The company recently opened a new 239,000-square-foot plant in Mesa, which lies just outside of Phoenix. This strategic location places the facility within one of Waymo’s key robotaxi market zones and conveniently near its various service regions spanning San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin.
A Waymo spokesperson told the company looked at other locations, but ultimately it chose Mesa for its proximity to other markets and because the consistent weather made it ideal for the validation process required before the robotaxis can be used by the public.
In a blog post unveiling the factory, Waymo mentioned that they completed the final deliveries from Jaguar earlier this year. Following these deliveries, Magna—the contracted manufacturer—and Waymo will collaborate to install the autonomous driving technology within the cars. Waymo highlighted an innovative procedure aimed at expediting the transition from manufacturing to testing to public deployment. They also noted that once assembled, the autonomous vehicles have the capability to drive themselves out of the plant and immediately enter operational service.
“In fact, these vehicles can pick up their first public passengers less than 30 minutes after leaving the factory,” Waymo said in its blog post. The company said that vehicles intended for other cities can be deployed into public service in a matter of hours after being shipped to their local depot.
The Mesa factory is designed to handle other vehicle platforms, notably to integrate the sixth-generation of Waymo’s self-driving system into the Zeekr RT later this year.
The plant will introduce an automated assembly line and other efficiencies over time, according to the company, which noted that the plant will be capable of building tens of thousands of fully autonomous Waymo vehicles per year when operating at full capacity.