Alphabet (GOOG, Financial) supercharges Waymo's robotaxi fleet, which logs over 250,000 weekly paid trips, as it accelerates production capacity in Mesa.
Waymo is already providing paid rides across Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin and plans to launch in Atlanta, Miami and Washington, D.C. by 2026, the company said. That translates to roughly 13 million trips annually and edges toward Waymo's long-term vision of tens of millions of rides per year.
To meet surging demand, Waymo and Magna International (MGA, Financial) are investing in a 239,000-square-foot autonomous-vehicle factory in Metro Phoenix, which has created hundreds of Mesa jobs.
The facility's automated assembly lines can validate and deploy Jaguar I-PACE EVs and Zeekr RT platforms with Waymo's sixth-generation Driver software in hours, and it's designed to produce tens of thousands of fully autonomous vehicles annually.
Waymo has also struck fleet-management deals with Moove and partnered with Toyota (TM, Financial) and Hyundai (HYMLF, Financial) to integrate its self-driving tech into additional models. Industry analysts say that scale advantage could pressure Uber Technologies (UBER, Financial), Lyft (LYFT, Financial) and Tesla's (TSLA, Financial) nascent robotaxi rollout while cementing Waymo's lead in autonomous ride-hailing.
This aggressive build-out underscores Alphabet's bet that once Waymo passes key volume thresholds, fixed costs will be absorbed and unit economics will improve, paving a path to eventual profitability in a capital-intensive segment.
Investors will watch Alphabet's Q2 earnings in late July for fresh Waymo metrics, including production ramp details, ride-volume trends and capex guidance.
