(Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Waymo self-driving vehicle unit said on Tuesday it would expand its operations in Michigan, hiring hundreds of workers to help transform Fiat Chrysler and Jaguar Land Rover vehicles into autonomous cars.
Waymo has proposed private investments of $13.6 million to build a facility in southeast Michigan and create more than 100 jobs, with the potential to create up to 400 jobs in total, the Michigan Economic Development Corp said separately on Tuesday.
The state agency will contribute an $8 million grant to fund the project, it added.
Waymo currently employs about 20 people at its operations in Novi, Michigan. At its new southeast Michigan facility, for which it is yet to identify a location, the company aims to hire engineers, operations experts, fleet coordinators and other professionals for assembling self-driving cars.
Waymo said the new facility would be dedicated to the mass production of L4 or level 4 autonomous vehicles which can pilot themselves without a human driver under certain conditions.
Waymo develops its own hardware and software and combines self-driving systems into its fleet, which includes Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Jaguar Land Rover vehicles.
In December, it launched self-driving taxis in Arizona for paying customers.
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