Robotaxi manufacturer Waymo and auto manufacturer Magna International announced plans to ramp up production in Arizona. According to the announcement, they plan to build a new plant in Mesa, AZ, that would double the production of robotaxis.

Enhancing Robotaxi Production

According to a statement, the “Waymo Driver Integration Plant” will reportedly assemble over 2,000 Jaguar I-PACE robotaxis. By the end of 2026, the scaled-up production will add to the 1,500 Waymo robotaxis on the roads across San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin.

Waymo said that when the facility is fully built, it will be capable of “building tens of thousands of fully autonomous Waymo vehicles per year.”

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

Additionally, the new facility will reportedly feature “new processes and efficiencies” at the end of the production line. According to Waymo, the new systems will reduce the time and cost required to get a robotaxi to a rider. “This new strategic capability allows vehicles assigned to our Phoenix fleet to drive themselves out of the facility and directly into service,” the company said in a statement.

The post continued, “In fact, these vehicles can pick up their first public passengers less than 30 minutes after leaving the factory.”

A Waymo spokesperson told TechCrunch that Mesa was an ideal location for the new facility because of its proximity to other Waymo markets and weather conditions.

According to CNBC, Waymo conducts 250,000 driverless rides per week in its current service areas. The company will reportedly expand the robotaxi services to the Atlanta, Miami, and Washington, D.C., markets in 2026.