Waymo bought Apple’s self-driving car proving ground for $220M

Waymo has acquired a monolithic 5,500-acre proving crushed successful Arizona owned by Route 14 Investment Partners LLC, a Delaware ammunition institution associated with Apple, according to documents filed with Maricopa County.

Waymo acquired the property, which is located adjacent different proving grounds successful Wittman, Arizona, for $220 million, according to the filing. The merchantability was recorded June 5. Waymo confirmed the merchantability to TechCrunch.

The acquisition rounds retired Waymo’s already robust web of closed trial courses. The Alphabet-owned institution inactive uses the Castle Proving Ground successful California arsenic good arsenic the Transportation Research Center successful Ohio. Both of these are dwarfed by the Arizona location. 

The Arizona determination includes a 115-acre metropolis course, a 35-acre conveyance dynamics area, a 4-mile oval track, and a freeway people purpose-built for autonomous conveyance testing. A Waymo spokesperson told TechCrunch the installation volition beryllium utilized to simulate driving scenarios successful a controlled situation to continuously trial and amended the show of its self-driving system. Specifically, the institution volition enactment rider-only testing, question power testing, operational grooming workflows, and aboriginal investigating enlargement implicit time.

Apple purchased the spot successful 2021 for $125 cardinal aft renting entree to it for years. The installation had antecedently been utilized arsenic a trial installation for Fiat Chrysler. It features antithetic roadworthy surfaces, a high-speed oval, and helped the Detroit automaker trial cars and their components successful blistery weather.

Apple utilized it to enactment prototype vehicles done their paces arsenic the tech institution oscillated done antithetic variations of its car project. That effort – known arsenic Project Titan – was yet scuttled successful aboriginal 2024 after Apple had spent billions of dollars connected it.

The Phoenix Business Journal was the archetypal to spot the document.

Waymo is successful the mediate of a melodramatic enlargement of its fleet, which presently stands astatine adjacent to 4,000 vehicles. The institution precocious started offering the archetypal rides successful its caller van, which is made by Zeekr. Waymo has said it wants to marque tens of thousands of robotaxis per year, including the Zeekr van and the Hyundai Ioniq 5.

The Zeekr vehicles are sent to Waymo’s Arizona factory, wherever they are past outfitted with the company’s self-driving system. 

Waymo has a increasing commercialized footprint successful Phoenix and Maricopa County. The institution began investigating its autonomous conveyance exertion successful the Phoenix suburb of Chandler backmost successful 2017. The country would beryllium Waymo’s archetypal marketplace to connection a commercialized robotaxi service. 

Waymo has since expanded to much than 10 U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Austin, and Atlanta.