Self-driving car spinoff Waymo will buy up to 20,000 electric vehicles from Jaguar Land Rover to help realize its vision for a robotic ride-hailing service.
The commitment, announced Tuesday during a New York event that was also webcast, marks another step in Waymo’s evolution from a secret project started at Google nine years ago to a spinoff that’s gearing up for an audacious attempt to reshape the transportation business.
John Krafcik, the CEO of Waymo, stands with the Jaguar I-Pace vehicle, Tuesday, March 27, 2018, in New York. Self-driving car pioneer Waymo will buy up to 20,000 of the electric vehicles from Jaguar Land Rover to help realize its vision for a robotic ride-hailing service. The commitment announced Tuesday marks another step in Waymo’s evolution from a secret project started in Google nine years ago to a spin-off that’s gearing up for an audacious attempt to reshape the transportation business. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)The Jaguar deal will expand upon a fleet of self-driving cars that Waymo has been gradually building in partnership with Fiat Chrysler since 2015. Waymo initially equipped about 600 Pacifica minivans with its self-driving technology before negotiating to buy “thousands” more of the vehicles.
The minivans will be part of a ride-hailing service Waymo plans to launch in Phoenix later this year. If all goes well, Waymo expects to expand the service to other states.
Jaguar will deliver its vehicles for Waymo’s ride-hailing from 2020 to 2022. The 20,000 “I-Pace” models will provide up to 1 million rides per day, according to Waymo.