"The robotaxi takeover - assuming they take over - will also be a real estate story. As Waymo, Uber, Tesla, and other competitors race to flood the streets with fully autonomous cars, robotaxi operators will need to find places to park, charge, and maintain their vehicles. Voltera, a charging infrastructure company based in Palo Alto that has partnered with Alphabet-backed Waymo, is buying up real estate now to prep for the AV boom."
"The hard part isn't finding an empty parcel of land. Robotaxis serve dense, highly populated regions and are all-electric, which means depots need to be close to customers and near a power grid. Once the depots are running, there's no guarantee they'll peacefully co-exist with their neighbors. San Francisco residents previously reported Waymo's incessant nighttime honking at a charging depot, which the robotaxi company had to fix."
Voltera is acquiring urban real estate to prepare for increased robotaxi operations and to build charging, parking, and maintenance depots close to dense customer bases. Depots must be near power grids and face constraints from zoning, power access, and community impacts, making site selection complex. Noise and light complaints have arisen at existing depots, leading to municipal legal action in Santa Monica and prior complaints in San Francisco. Voltera manages at least one depot implicated in complaints and aims to streamline depot development to ensure assets are shovel-ready ahead of fleet expansion in major US cities.
Read at Business Insider
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