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(Reuters) -Alphabet's self-driving unit Waymo said on Monday that it plans to build Jaguar I-PACE and Zeekr vehicles with its autonomous technology at a new plant in Arizona as soon as this year, with Canadian auto parts supplier partner Magna International.
Waymo, which started as a small self-driving project within Google in 2009, has expanded slowly but steadily in a tricky autonomous vehicle market that has witnessed several casualties due to soaring investment, tight regulatory requirements and tough technological hurdles.
The Mesa, Arizona, factory is a multi-million dollar investment and has created hundreds of jobs, Waymo said in a statement, adding that this is a step towards scaling Waymo One — the company's fully autonomous ride-hailing service.
Waymo One is providing more than 250,000 paid passenger trips each week in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Austin after more than 4 million paid trips in 2024. It plans to add Atlanta and Miami and then Washington, D.C., by 2026.
The company plans to build over 2,000 more fully autonomous Jaguar I-PACE vehicles through next year and integrate Waymo's technology on new vehicle platforms, starting with Zeekr RT this year, the statement said.
"The Waymo Driver integration plant in Mesa is the epicenter of our future growth plans," said Ryan McNamara, vice president of operations at Waymo.
(Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)