Waymo has nearly 1,000 robotaxis waiting at its Arizona factory

This story is about robotaxis, not home energy upgrades, so it doesn't have much bearing on your house or heating and cooling bills. Waymo, the self-driving car company, has nearly 1,000 of its new "Ojai" robotaxis sitting at a factory in Mesa, Arizona, with most of them already finished and ready for road use. The Ojai is built on a base vehicle from China and fitted with Waymo's sensor and computer system in Arizona, and it's meant to replace Waymo's older fleet as the company expands its driverless ride service in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix.

The news mainly signals how fast Waymo can scale up paid driverless rides, which it already runs about 500,000 times a week and hopes to push toward a million by year's end. A stockpile of nearly 700 finished cars at one factory suggests the company can add a lot of capacity quickly if it chooses to put them into service.

None of this involves any rebate, tax credit, or home retrofit program, so there's nothing here that changes what you'd do with your own house. It's simply a look at how one company is ramping up production of self-driving taxis.