Waymo is partnering with a Canadian car parts supplier Magna International, to scale up its fleet of its preferred robotaxi platform, the Jaguar I-PACE.

Waymo announced that the “increasing demand of our riders requires a growing fleet of vehicles”, and to this end it and Magna are “investing in our American manufacturing operation with a new autonomous vehicle factory in Metro Phoenix.”

It comes after Waymo last week signed a preliminary agreement with Japanese car manufacturing giant Toyota “to explore a collaboration focused on accelerating the development and deployment of autonomous driving technologies.”

Waymo and Toyota also said they also intend to explore the integration of self-driving tech in personally owned vehicles (POVs).

New factory

Waymo currently uses the all-electric Jaguar I-PACE that is equipped with Waymo’s self-driving technology (Waymo Driver) to offer fully autonomous ride-hailing services in selected cities including San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Austin.

Amid growing demand, Waymo is also in the process of rolling its service to other US cities, and it has already partnered with ride-hailing giant Uber in a number of locations.

But with Jaguar no longer manufacturing the I-PACE (or indeed any other cars), it is clear that Waymo needs to scale up its fleet to meet this demand, and its chosen vehicle platform currently remains the Jaguar I-PACE.

“Scaling Waymo One and meeting the increasing demand of our riders requires a growing fleet of vehicles integrated with our generalizable Waymo Driver,” said Waymo. “To support our growing US ridership, we’re investing in our American manufacturing operation with a new autonomous vehicle factory in Metro Phoenix with our partners at Magna.”

Waymo said that the Waymo Driver integration plant will build thousands of Jaguar I-PACEs equipped with its fully autonomous technology, which it designs and assembles in the US.

Waymo said the 239,000 square feet factory is a multi-million dollar investment and has created hundreds of jobs in Mesa, Arizona.

Final I-PACE delivery

“The new Waymo and Magna manufacturing facility in Mesa is the latest example of Arizona being the new home for technology to innovate and grow,” said Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs. “I’m proud to see autonomous vehicles on our streets every day, helping get people where they need to be safely. The new manufacturing facility will enhance this presence, and the local jobs it’s creating will help Arizona’s tech economy continue to rise on the world stage.”

Waymo said that earlier this year, it had received its final delivery from Jaguar, and through next year, and it will build over 2,000 more fully autonomous I-PACE vehicles for its fleet.

“The Waymo Driver integration plant in Mesa is the epicenter of our future growth plans,” said Ryan McNamara, Vice President of Operations, Waymo. “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.”

This facility’s flexible design also enables Waymo to integrate the 6th-generation Waymo Driver on new vehicle platforms, beginning this year with the Zeekr RT, said the firm.

With the need to build multiple platforms simultaneously and at higher volumes, the plant will introduce an automated assembly line and other efficiencies over time. When the facility is operating at full capacity, it will be capable of building tens of thousands of fully autonomous Waymo vehicles per year.

Zeekr is a Chinese EV firm owned by Geely.

From factory to service

Waymo said that after the Driver is installed, the system needs to be validated and commissioned before carrying riders.

“With this new facility, we recently implemented new processes and efficiencies at the end of line that significantly reduce the time and cost required to enable a vehicle to carry riders,” Waymo said. “This new strategic capability allows vehicles assigned to our Phoenix fleet to drive themselves out of the facility and directly into service.”

“In fact, these vehicles can pick up their first public passengers less than 30 minutes after leaving the factory,” it stated. “For vehicles intended for other cities, they can be deployed into public service in a matter of hours after being shipped to their local depot.”

Waymo One is providing more than 250,000 paid passenger trips each week in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Austin after more than 4 million paid trips in 2024.

It plans to add Atlanta and Miami and then Washington, DC, by 2026.