Waymo Promises New Auto Jobs in Michigan

Alphabet’s self-driving arm, Waymo, announced plans for a Michigan expansion on Tuesday. The company is currently seeking a location in the southeast section of the state and intends to hire up to 400 employees over the next five years.

According to a corporate blog post, the new new hires will be tasked with installing autonomous driving systems on vehicles built by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Jaguar Land Rover ahead of those vehicles entering the firm’s growing fleet.

“We’ll be looking for engineers, operations experts, and fleet coordinators to join our team and help assemble and deploy our self-driving cars,” the blog explains. “This will be the world’s first factory [100-percent] dedicated to the mass production of [Level 4] autonomous vehicles.”

Waymo is already partnering with supplier Magna to integrate its systems into vehicles, with a team hired specifically for adapting the Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans and Jaguar I-Pace electric vehicles. The company is seeking additional engineers, operations experts, and fleet coordinators to help with the assembly and deployment of these cars.

From Waymo:

In the US, the auto industry is synonymous with Michigan. Auto manufacturing has created hundreds of thousands of jobs in the state and built an economic engine that helps fuel the entire country. Today, Waymo is excited to announce that we’ll grow our business in Michigan, as the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) voted to approve our effort to establish our manufacturing presence to build our self-driving vehicles in the state, creating hundreds of jobs along the way.

Waymo develops hardware and software in-house so that our self-driving technology works as a seamless, single system. A vital part of that process is integrating our self-driving system into the vehicles we purchase for our fleet, including Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Jaguar Land Rover. Thanks to our collaboration with MEDC, we’ll bring new job opportunities to the talented citizens of Southeast Michigan. The Great Lakes State is one we already know and love, with a talented workforce and excellent snowy conditions for our cars to test. Our local engineers are already hard at work outfitting our Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans with Waymo technology, and now we’re looking forward to expanding our roots.

Automotive News reported that Waymo’s media relations team said the company would likely look to repurpose an existing space rather than construct a new facility. The firm will also receive an $8 million grant from the Michigan Business Development Program, money that supports the first 100 jobs in the project, according to documents provided by the MEDC. Waymo is expected to make a $13.6 million capital investment in what’s expected to be a roughly 200,000-square-foot facility, per the documents’ details.

[Image: Waymo]