Autonomous vehicle operator Waymo paid $220 million for the former Chrysler proving grounds in the far northwest Valley.
Waymo bought the nearly 5,500-acre site in an all-cash purchase from Route 14 Investment Partners, according to real estate database Vizzda.
Waymo recently bought a nearly 5,500-acre testing site in Surprise in an all-cash purchase.
A Waymo representative confirmed the purchase of the site, which is located at 211th Avenue and Dove Valley Road. The site is in Surprise, but it is directly east of unincorporated land that was bought by BNSF for a $3.2 billion logistics park development.
The site includes a 115-acre city course, a 35-acre vehicle dynamics area, a 4-mile oval track, and a freeway course for vehicle testing, according to information provided by Waymo. Route 14 Investment Partners, a Delaware shell company that had been widely reported as being an entity related to Apple, bought it in 2021.
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Jeff Ching, the transaction manager of global real estate for Apple, signed a Maricopa County document on behalf of Route 14 Investment Partners related to the sale.
The site will allow the company to continuously test the Waymo Driver technology’s performance through a variety of methods. The company also has vehicle testing facilities in California and Ohio.
According to a company statement, the acquisition furthers Waymo’s investment in testing, validation and operational capabilities as the technology is deployed across more environments and jurisdictions.
In May, Waymo paused its service on freeways in Phoenix and other cities, citing the need to fix the operations around freeway construction sites. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, no Waymo vehicles have been involved in incidents in Phoenix related to freeway construction.
Waymo recently began offering rides in its new vehicle, called the Ojai, to riders on Phoenix streets.
The Ojai’s system uses the sixth-generation Waymo Driver technology, which will also be deployed in the future rollout of Hyundai IONIQ 5 vehicles. It is the first Waymo Driver technology to be designed with cold weather conditions in mind and will be able to function in cities like Denver and Minneapolis as Waymo rolls out in those places.
Waymo has a facility called a “driver integration plant” in Mesa, which retrofits the company’s vehicles, including the Jaguar I-Pace and the new Ojai, with the self-driving technology. Jaguar is discontinuing production of the I-Pace, so Waymo has already bought the last I-Pace vehicles available.
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