Waymo’s plans to expand its robo-taxis fleet require ramping up its manufacturing capacity, and a joint venture with Magna International is set to produce 2,000 more robotaxis by the end of next year and bring the Zeekr RT minivan to market later this year.
Image source: Waymo
As CNBC notes, the partners will be able to assemble more than 2,000 robotic taxis on the Jaguar I-Pace electric vehicle platform by the specified deadline on an area of more than 22,000 square meters. Currently, about 1,500 such vehicles operate on US roads in areas approved for operation. By the time the joint venture reaches its design capacity, it will be able to produce tens of thousands of fully autonomous Waymo taxis per year.
By the end of this year, the long-introduced Zeekr RT minivan, which will be equipped with Waymo’s sixth-generation automated control system, will also hit the assembly line at the Arizona facility. The Waymo and Magna venture began operating in October last year. The former began serving Arizona residents with driverless taxis in 2020. It currently provides 250,000 paid rides per week on driverless taxis in Texas, California, and Arizona. By 2026, the geography of services will expand to Atlanta, Miami, and Washington.
Last month, Alphabet executives floated the idea of bringing Waymo’s self-driving vehicles to retail. The American company is collaborating with Toyota to improve active driver assistance technologies that will appear on its cars.