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

Waymo has acquired a massive 5,500-acre proving ground in Arizona owned by Route 14 Investment Partners LLC, a Delaware shell company linked to Apple, according to documents filed with Maricopa County.

Waymo acquired the property, which is located near another testing ground in Whitman, Arizona, for $220 million. According to the deposit. The sale was registered on June 5. Waymo confirmed the sale to TechCrunch.

The purchase complements Waymo’s already strong network of closed testing cycles. The Alphabet-owned company still uses Castle Proving Ground in California as well as a transportation research center in Ohio. Both are dwarfed by Arizona’s position.

The Arizona site includes a 115-acre city stadium, a 35-acre vehicle dynamics area, a four-mile oval track, and a highway track specifically designed to test autonomous vehicles. A Waymo spokesperson told TechCrunch that the facility will be used to simulate driving scenarios in a controlled environment to continually test and improve the performance of its self-driving system. Specifically, the company will support passenger-only testing, motion control testing, and operational training workflows, expanding future testing over time.

Apple bought the property in 2021 for $125 million afterward Rental access for years. The facility was previously used as a testing facility for Fiat Chrysler. It features different road surfaces, a high-speed oval, and helped the Detroit automaker test cars and their components in hot weather.

Apple used it to put vehicle prototyping through its paces while the tech company was swinging through variations of its car project. This effort – known as Project Titan – was eventually realized She was sunk in early 2024 afterward Apple has spent billions of dollars on this.

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

Waymo is currently undergoing a massive expansion of its fleet, which currently stands at nearly 4,000 vehicles. The company recently began offering the first trips in its new truck manufactured by Zeekr. Waymo said it wants to make tens of thousands of robotaxis annually, including the Zeekr truck and the Hyundai Ioniq 5.

Zeekr vehicles are sent to Waymo’s factory in Arizona, where they are then equipped with the company’s self-driving system.

Waymo has a growing business footprint in Phoenix and Maricopa County. The company began testing self-driving vehicle technology in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler in 2017. The area will be Waymo’s first market to offer commercial robotaxi service.

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