Introduction to Waymo’s Autonomous Fleet

For years, Waymo has been secretive about the exact number of Jaguar I-Pace EVs in its autonomous fleet, which includes vehicles used for testing and commercial robotaxi operations. However, on Monday, the Alphabet company finally provided insight into the commercial side of its fleet.

Expansion of Commercial Fleet

On Monday, Waymo announced that it has more than 1,500 commercial robotaxis in operation, as part of a larger announcement. The company is also working to expand its fleet through a multi-million-dollar investment with Magna to build over 2,000 autonomous I-Pace vehicles at a new factory in Arizona.

Partnership with Magna

Waymo has collaborated with Magna for several years, primarily at a now-closed facility in Detroit. The new 239,000-square-foot factory, located in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa, is strategically positioned near one of Waymo’s robotaxi markets and close to its other service areas across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin.

Location Selection

A Waymo spokesperson informed TechCrunch that the company considered other locations but ultimately chose Mesa due to its proximity to other markets and the consistent weather, which makes it ideal for the validation process required before the robotaxis can be used by the public.

Production Process

In a blog post announcing the factory, Waymo stated that it received the final delivery from Jaguar earlier this year. From there, contract builder Magna and Waymo will integrate the self-driving system into the vehicles. Waymo emphasized a new process designed to accelerate the production-to-validation-to-public use process, noting that the AVs can drive themselves out of the facility and directly into service.

Efficient Deployment

“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 added that vehicles intended for other cities can be deployed into public service in a matter of hours after being shipped to their local depot.

Future Plans

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.

Factory Capacity

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.