He leaves the main terminal of the Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix to the travel zone shared on a hot spring day and will glimpse a future that is quickly approaching: Waymo driverless robotaxis rowing with Ubers and Lyfts driven by humans to take passengers to their next destination. The service was recently launched in Austin and continues to expand in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley, but Phoenix has been its territory for years, starting public payment trips in 2020. And now, the region that helped improve technology based on AI has silently become the Waymo Robotaxis Production Center.
About 20 minutes east of the Phoenix airport, at Mesa, Arizona, is a 239,000 square feet factory that opened its doors in October. Each day, it produces several white Jaguar I-Pace Batters, battery fed, equipped with computers, cameras, radars and laser lidar sensors to measure by the company in a single production line. However, the plan is to drastically increase the rhythm and automate production to maintain the rhythm of growth plans, according to Kent Yiu, director of manufacturing of Waymo vehicles, who previously directed the production operations of Apple and General Motors.
“This installation will surely have to be able to process tens of thousands of tons per year.”
Kent Yiu
“We analyzed our five -year projection and said: ‘To fulfill it, this plant will certainly have to be able to process tens of thousands of tons a year,” said Yiu Forbes . “We have the ability to support that growth.”
The production scale is small compared to traditional automotive plants that manufacture hundreds of thousands of vehicles a year. However, the 1500 robotaxis that Waymo has provides more than 250,000 trips paid a week, or approximately 24 per day per vehicle, a much greater use than that of the cars and personal trucks that are driven only a few times a few times a day. And by the time the table factory has 10,000 waymos in circulation, perhaps in approximately one year, according to the current rhythm, the fleet could be reserving 250,000 trips a day. That is much more than 1.5 million a week. On that scale, Waymo’s annual revenues could amount to 2000 million dollars, compared to an estimate forbes of 100 million dollars last year. The company refused to comment on these estimates.
The billionaire table installation (Waymo has not revealed the exact investment) is vital for the growth objectives of the Alphabet Inc. unit after years of tests and pilot programs that date back to 2009, promoted by three financing rounds that raised more than 11 billion dollars – without mentioning the countless billions that Google invested in the program between 2009 and 2020—, Waymo finally became In a real company last year.
In 2024, he expanded from his operations in Phoenix to San Francisco and Los Angeles, and later Austin in March. And as it continues to expand in those cities, adding more vehicles and covering increasingly extensive service areas, prepares to launch this summer in Atlanta, and in Miami and Washington, DC next year. Meanwhile, Waymo is also performing tests in Nashville and Tokyo. If these cities are as viable as those currently operating, the company could soon transport millions of passengers weekly, or even daily. After almost 16 years, Alphabet’s great bet could finally bear fruit.
“We have focused to the maximum and we will continue to develop the best pilot in the world,” said Losco Pichai, executive director of Alphabet, in the presentation of the company’s results on April 24. “I think doing well really offers a variety of business options and models in different geographies, etc.”
These include the possibility of licensing technology for use in personal vehicles, he said. Last week, Waymo took a step in that regard by announcing a collaboration with Toyota to design a next -generation platform for autonomous cars and trucks, as well as to study how to use the Waymo system in personal vehicles.
The factory is managed by Magna, a leading engineering and manufacturing company that produced the Jaguar I-Pace that Waymo uses in its Graz plant, Austria. Replaces a smaller assembly plant in Detroit that Waymo opened in 2019, also with Magna, and which closed at the end of 2024.
Within the cavernous space, there are no conveyor belts or the noisy metallic print seen in traditional assembly plants. The work rhythm is constant, but not of large volume. Vehicles without assembly enter the building at one end, with plastic roofs on the body panels on pretended sections where the sensors will be installed. They enter a manual assembly line where dozens of workers withdraw the roofs, bumpers and other exterior components to begin the careful installation process of an electrical cable deck, computers, sensors in each corner of the vehicle and the distinctive “Top hat” unit of Waymo, which houses the main laser lidar for 3D vision, multiple cameras and audio sensors.
“All vehicles are delivered with these prefabricated cuts and a mounting plaque at the top,” said Amanda York, factory program manager, who previously collaborated in the management of assembly operations in Johnson Controls and Boeing. “These elements help us optimize and improve our process and the efficiency of the production line.”
Once finished, bumper and other exterior pieces are reinstalled, and Waymo’s badges and stickers are added. The last step consists of a series of tests to calibrate the AI system and sensors, including short driving evaluations in a parking lot outside the facilities.
“That process takes between 20 minutes and an hour, just to make sure that everything works correctly; that is, everything looks correctly,” said Yiu. “And then we upload all this data to a server in Mountain View to ensure that everything is correct.”
A day of last month, the goal was to complete six vehicles in a single work shift. Yiu, from Waymo, said he could soon double.
And vehicles are not missing to prepare. Hidden in the view of the public, parked after a high wall next to the factory, there is a discreet warehouse where more than 2000 i-pace, all white, wait under the brilliant Sun of Arizona to be turned into robotaxis. Jaguar discontinued this luxury model last year, with an approximate price of $ 72,000, but Waymo bought thousands and will continue to use them for years.
Soon, two additional models will join the Waymo fleet, including a Zeekr van, a brand of electric vehicles recently created by the Geely Group of China, also owner of Volvo and Polestar, which is already receiving the equipment of Waymo. A version of the Ioniq 5 Hyundai Electric Hatchback Motor for Waymo will begin arriving at the end of the year, produced at the Korean automobile giant “metaplants” plant in Ellabell, Georgia, opened in March.
Both cars should be significantly cheaper than the Jaguar, although Trump’s tariffs have created a problem with Zeekr. The direct import of the van was already a more expensive option, since the United States increased tariffs on 100 % Chinese electric vehicles during the presidency of Joe Biden. A possible solution at that time would have been to import them by sections and make the so -called assembly in table kit, which seems to have been the Waymo Plan. But with the increase in Trump tariffs to Chinese products at 145 %, Zeekr will be very expensive even if they are assembled by sections in Arizona.
Waymo will not discuss details of his plans with Zeekr, beyond the fact that he will continue to test them in the United States and have completed vehicle shock tests to allow their use on US roads.
Approximately a dozen Zeekrs, all of Bígaro blue, parked around the table factory before being transported in truck to perform tests. They are an attractive option like Robotaxi, with a spacious and easy to enter and leave, sliding side doors and a lower and flatter floor. The vehicle is slightly larger than the little electric van of its rival, Zoox, which, unlike Waymo models, has no steering wheel, pedals or exterior retrovons.
All Waymo technology is designed internally, including its lidar, radar, cameras and computer system, and is manufactured by the wide global base of Alphabet suppliers.
The potential rivals of the Robotaxis, such as Tesla, believe that they will have a great advantage in Waymo costs because vehicles such as the future Cybercab, presented last autumn, have much lower production costs. But this is because Tesla uses much less sophisticated computer sensors and systems. Instead of the Lidar and the high -end radar that Waymo uses, the company uses rudimentary digital cameras of 5 megapixels. This could save thousands of dollars in additional costs, but Waymo believes that his vision system, much more robust, maximizes the safety of passengers. And its vehicles already circulate.
All Waymo technology, including its lidar, radar, cameras and computer system, was designed internally and is manufactured by the wide global base of Alphabet suppliers. In addition to the incorporation of new cheaper vehicles, Waymo has affirmed that his sixth generation hardware, which will come into operation at the end of this year, will be considerably more economical than the one he currently uses, without giving more details. However, this was before Trump’s tariffs.
For now, the company is working to find the most efficient ways to install its technology in the Jaguar and transport them to fleets in all the cities through which it circulates. But not all vehicles will come out in semi -trailers. Those who go to the Phoenix fleet drive from the factory to start collecting passengers, perhaps from Sky Harbor airport, as soon as they receive approval for the service.
“It takes between 20 and 30 minutes to reach that service area from the factory,” said Yiu. “And as soon as it reaches the service zone, you are already receiving customers.”
This article was originally published by Forbes Us.
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