{"id":857772,"date":"2026-06-10T15:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/857772\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T15:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:47:14","slug":"waymo-buys-phoenix-area-testing-grounds-for-220-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/857772\/","title":{"rendered":"Waymo Buys Phoenix-Area Testing Grounds for $220 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"

Waymo<\/a> plunked down nine figures for a more than 5,000-acre proving grounds site outside Phoenix.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The autonomous vehicle company acquired the 5,458-acre site at the northwest corner of 211th Avenue and Dove Valley Road in Surprise<\/a> for $220 million, the Phoenix Business Journal reported<\/a>. The seller was Route 14 Investment Partners LLC, a foreign entity, according to the state\u2019s business database.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The City of Surprise had signed a development agreement with the prior owner and approved transferring the deal\u2019s obligations to Waymo. Chrysler previously used the site to test its vehicles, and then Apple<\/a> reportedly used it to test its own autonomous vehicles. The sprawling proving grounds are located on the border of Surprise and Wittmann.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Waymo cars have been in the Phoenix area since its early rider program launched in 2018, making the region one of the country\u2019s premier autonomous vehicle testing grounds. The company, a subsidiary of Google owner Alphabet<\/a>, began testing for driving on Phoenix-area freeways in early 2024. An aerial view of the site shows several circular tracks and grid-like streets for cars to simulate driving in cities or move at high speeds without endangering other drivers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The self-driving car operator has been planting deeper roots in the Phoenix Valley. The company recently opened its first offices in the area with a 40,300-square-foot sublease in Tempe. Phoenix will also be the first to experience Waymo\u2019s new Ojai vehicles \u2014 electric four-seat robotaxis<\/a> designed in partnership with Chinese automaker Geely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Toyota has a proving grounds spanning more than 11,000 acres on the opposite side of Wittman. Last year, the Japanese automaker announced it was investing $50 million to upgrade the site with a new oval track, off-road park and a facility for developing advanced drive assistance technology. Toyota started welcoming other companies to use it as a testing site in 2021. Waymo\u2019s new testing grounds are also near BNSF Railway<\/a>\u2019s proposed $3.2 billion logistics park and intermodal facility, which has faced significant pushback from locals and the City of Surprise itself<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2014 Chris Malone M\u00e9ndez<\/p>\n

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BNSF\u2019s $3B logistics hub gets Surprise opposition<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Christopher\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Christopher Todd buys Surprise resi community from former JV partner Taylor Morrison<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"BNSF\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

BNSF Railway amasses 56 more acres for controversial freight hub project in Wittmann<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Waymo plunked down nine figures for a more than 5,000-acre proving grounds site outside Phoenix.\u00a0 The autonomous vehicle…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":857773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,180245],"class_list":["post-857772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-phoenix","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-waymo-phoenix"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116726599703985634","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}