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DeeperML - #robotaxi
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Kirsten Korosec@TechCrunch
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Waymo, the self-driving car division of Google's parent company Alphabet, is significantly scaling up its robotaxi production capabilities. The company is ramping up its manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. This expansion aims to increase the number of autonomous vehicles it can deploy, with the goal of achieving 250,000 driverless rides per week. The Mesa factory is strategically located near Waymo's existing robotaxi markets and service areas in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin.
The company has been working with Magna for years to build these vehicles and recently received its last delivery of Jaguar I-Pace SUVs. These I-Pace vehicles are being retrofitted with Waymo's self-driving system, including custom computing, cameras, lidar, and radar, at the Arizona facility. Waymo currently has 1,500 commercial robotaxis in operation and plans to add 2,000 more vehicles to its fleet by 2026, bringing the total to 3,500. The Mesa factory is also preparing for the integration of Waymo's sixth-generation self-driving system into the Zeekr RT minivan. In addition to expanding its fleet size, Waymo is also planning to launch or begin preparations for robotaxi operations in Atlanta, Miami, and Washington, D.C., as well as other cities, by 2026. Waymo emphasized a new process designed to speed up the production-to-validation-to-public use process, noting that the AVs can drive themselves out of the facility and directly into service, picking up passengers in as little as 30 minutes after leaving the factory.
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