Alphabet Inc.-owned Waymo LLC said today it will double robotaxi production in partnership with auto parts maker Magna International Inc. at a new plant in Mesa, Arizona, by 2026.

The company currently has 1,500 commercial robotaxis on the streets, operating in the cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin, together providing about 250,000 weekly trips. By next year, it wants to expand the service to Atlanta, Miami and Washington, D.C. Despite some setbacks, the outlook for Waymo’s robotaxis is looking positive.

Work is already on the way at the “Waymo Driver Integration Plant,” located just outside Phoenix, in the form of a multimillion-dollar investment with Magna. The companies hope to build at least 2,000 autonomous Jaguar I-Pace vehicles at the new factory. Still, Waymo said in a press release, it’s “capable of building tens of thousands of fully autonomous Waymo vehicles per year.” Also in the plan is a new fleet of Geely Zeekr RT robotaxis, cars fitted with Waymo’s “6th-generation Waymo Driver” technology.

“The Waymo Driver integration plant in Mesa is the epicenter of our future growth plans,” said Ryan McNamara, vice president of operations at Waymo. “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.”

Once the vehicles are built and the software is installed, each car must be validated and commissioned before being let loose on willing passengers. Waymo explained that this process has now been streamlined, with the facility implementing new processes to reduce the time it takes to get vehicles on the streets. According to Waymo, the cars will “drive themselves out of the facility” and be ready for a fare within 30 minutes.

When asked about the future of Waymo on an earnings call last month, Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said, “There is future optionality for personal ownership.” That may come in the form of a partnership with the Japanese auto giant, Toyota Motor Co. The two companies said they’d reached a preliminary agreement to accelerate the “development and deployment of autonomous driving technologies” to “develop a new autonomous vehicle platform.”

Meanwhile, the prospective competitor in the robotaxi business, Tesla Inc., said recently it hopes to launch a service in Austin using its Model Y SUVs and its Unsupervised Full Self-Driving technology. CEO Elon Musk has been critical of Waymo, saying its cars’ sensor suites are “expensive” compared with Tesla’s generalized AI.

Musk sees Tesla eclipsing Waymo in the self-driving business, but so far, it’s Waymo that’s out front. Waymo CEO John Krafcik later joined the conversation, calling Musk’s prediction of Tesla having a 99% market share in the autonomous ride-sharing business “ridiculous.”

Photo: Waymo