Waymo’s Big Miami Plans: Two Depots With the Ability to Scale to Thousands of Vehicles

Executive Summary

Waymo is establishing a permanent, year-round footprint in Miami with ambitious infrastructure plans that go far beyond seasonal testing. On-location inspections reveal two critical depots: a future site strategically located at Miami International Airport and an operational hub in the Wynwood/Design District. With Florida Power & Light (FPL) actively upgrading electrical capacity on-site, Waymo is positioning itself to scale its fleet to over 1,000 vehicles ahead of major upcoming events like the Super Bowl.

Key The Road to Autonomy Episode Questions Answered

The Road to Autonomy Topics & Timestamps

[0:00] Waymo’s “Rat Pack” Ambitions in Miami

Waymo is establishing a permanent, year-round presence in Miami, mirroring the Rat Pack’s affinity for the city but with long-term infrastructure ambitions.

[1:00] The Airport Depot: Bypassing the Highway

Grayson uncovers a future depot site near Miami International Airport featuring a strategic service road that bypasses highway traffic for a potential eight-minute connection.

[2:00] The Wynwood Depot: 35 Chargers & A Substation

The inspection reveals an active depot in the Wynwood area equipped with roughly 35 chargers situated immediately next to a Florida Power & Light substation.

[3:00] Miami Depots Compared to the Santa Monica Depot

Unlike the exposed Santa Monica facility, Waymo’s Miami depot uses black fencing to conceal operations, though inspectors still identified over 20 vehicles and 30 chargers on-site.

[4:00] From PODS to Warehouses: The Expansion Plan

While current operations rely on outdoor PODS, adjacent vacant land and a nearby warehouse with a garage present a clear path for scaling service capabilities.

[5:00] The FPL Signal: Micro-Trenching

Florida Power & Light crews were observed micro-trenching at the depot, a strong signal that significant electrical capacity is being added to support fleet expansion.

[6:00] Expanding Depots to Surfside & South Beach

To navigate Miami’s notorious traffic, the analysis suggests Waymo must establish a third depot to effectively serve Surfside, North Beach, and South Beach.

[7:00] The Super Bowl & Hard Rock Stadium Demand

Manually driven Waymos spotted north of the current zone hint at expansion toward Hard Rock Stadium to capture demand from the Dolphins, F1, and the returning Super Bowl.

[8:00] The Future Is Bright. The Future Is Autonomous.

A final recap of the two discovered depots confirms Waymo’s massive plans for the region as The Road to Autonomy series continues its on-the-ground inspections.

Full Episode Transcript

Grayson Brulte: Waymo has big plans for the Magic City, just like the Rat Pack. Went down there and made it their homes in the winter. Waymo’s making it their home, not just in the winter, but year round. The company has big ambitions for Miami and those ambitions start with the infrastructure with uncovered one depot by the Miami Airport.

Interesting fact, a service road connects it to the airport. No highway needed. We would estimate you could be there under eight minutes. Second Depot we uncovered in the Wynwood area over by the design district from the northeast quadrant of the Waymo, ODD. What does that tell us? Tell us. Waymo has plans for more depots throughout the Miami region. We could expect his find depots in South Coral Gables, Miami Beach, and at some point Miami Gardens, as we fully expect Waymo to scale.

Watch what we’ve uncovered. The first stop on our inspector journey to Miami is Waymo’s Depot by the Miami International Airport. We’re here by the Miami airport to stone throw that way. And uh, not only is the airport here. Waymo has an eclectic neighbor, is what I’ll say. You’re gonna have to put on your au hat to figure that one out. But take a look at the depot. You can clearly see from behind me. Waymo’s Depot is. Not operational. You can see the cones they’re getting ready to make it operational across the street. This way, towards the airport, which I’ll turn around, there is a lot that has a building permit on it. It’s not connected to move the US av, or it’s not connected to Waymo LLC. It’s a builder. Perhaps that could be an expanded lot.

Let’s walk across the street and get you a closer look here at the facility for Waymo. As you can see clearly from this video, Waymo has not broken ground on this depot. The refurbishment has not started. The electric has not gone. However, there is a very large parking lot that was Waymo’s soon to be under Construction depot by the Miami Airport. Lots of room to expand, as you’ll notice a big difference between that depot and the current depot operating today.

A Florida power and light substation. As you can see, we’re outside here at the Waymo Depot in Miami. We counted roughly 35 chargers next to a substation. Waymo clearly has the ability to scale, as I’ve said on previous episodes of autonomy markets. I believe Waymo is going to run a Co strategy here that is hybrid with multiple depots. This depot is clearly running. However, there is no garage. Everything is run out of pods. It’s outdoors, but 35 chargers we counted next to a substation. Looks like the ability to go to 40, 45 chargers, and there is land available next door to scale.

Waymo clearly has big ambitions here in Miami. We’re here in Miami. We’re inspecting Waymo. Second day. First day we found the depot over by the airport in West Miami. Today we found the operational depot and we noticed some things that are different as compared to the Santa, the infamous, I’ll say the infamous Santa Monica depot with a beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Waymo, or what? Perhaps it was move. Av, F-L-L-L-C decided to put black so you could not see the vehicles. At the eye level trying to conceal what they were up to. However, the inspector can see past the fence and what the inspector saw was big, we counted roughly 30 plus chargers. Based on the current facility there, we counted roughly 20 plus vehicles.

However, Waymo has the ability to scale. Why do they have the ability to scale the land? Immediately adjacent to the left and immediately adjacent to the right is vacant. Then if you go one extra property down, what did we uncover? A warehouse. With a garage. And why is that important? Because today, where Waymo’s operating in Miami, there is no cover. They’re operating outta pods. Remember, perhaps you’re getting at home from college or you’re moving into your first house. We all had a pod experience. Waymo’s using pods to store parts. Cleaning is what it appeared to be.

We counted roughly half a dozen people there, including one security guard. Sorry, Waymo. He was on his phone not paying attention. I’m sorry. Then what are you gonna do? It’s about to pour rain, as you can see here in Miami. Heavy rain. Falls coming. So what are you going to do? Are you, how are you gonna service the vehicles in the rain or when hurricane season comes? So we think there was a very high probability that either move an investor, perhaps that leases it to Waymo or to move acquires the three adjacent parcels. And then we fully believe in my humble opinion, that Waymo could easily operate a thousand vehicles out of there.

Is the garage, the warehouse as large as the one that we showed you earlier? No, it’s a decent size. I would make a guesstimation here that perhaps 40 cars, 50 cars very comfortably in there being serviced. It’s a fraction of the size of the A Vmo Depot in Austin, but the outside land is there. And I know we said it earlier and we showed it to you, the sub. Station’s content is there. Waymo has the ability to ramp this thing up to the moon, and what did we see? The inspector was here. FPL, Florida Power and Light was there today at the Waymo Depot and they were micro trenching. What do you do when you micro trench a lot of things, but there is the possibility that Waymo is getting more electrical conduit to their depot. Maybe that’s a sign of expansion. What became very, very clear to us today, Waymo has big plans for Miami.

When the first depot comes online, which we would estimate 12 to 16, perhaps 18 months. With this active depot, we are then looking at a thousand vehicles in this market. Easily serviced between those twos. Now the next question becomes. Specter will be on the case. Have no fear here. Where in the beaches will Waymo put a depot? Because as we all know, Miami traffic, it’s not very nice. It’s hectic and there is a lot, a lot of traffic here. So we do believe either surf side, north Beach, middle Beach, south Beach, Waymo’s gonna have to put a depot out there perhaps. That’s why they have not expanded the depo out there.

Oh, in another piece of Inspector Insight today, we noticed manually driven Waymo’s north of the OODD in Miami. Perhaps Waymo is inching towards Miami Gardens, which we believe is absolutely critically important for Waymo to succeed in the Miami market. Why you might ask Hard Rock Stadium. What happens at Hard Rock Stadium? It’s the Dolphins. I know they’re not very good right now, but people love Florida. Just asked our Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, he’d blindly take that job. If he wants a another job, then you have the F1 there. Well, where are the predominant hotels in Miami? They’re in two locations. Miami Beach, Brickle. Brickle Connected. Today, south Miami Beach is not connected. We can, can’t forget you have this. The Four Seasons in Surfside. And why is that important? Because at some point in time, well, I know you’re gonna be very happy about this ’cause you’re gonna hope your beloved Eagles make it. The Super Bowl’s coming back to Miami and this weekend, tomorrow the big game, they’ve got customized Waymo vehicles taking people to and from the game, from the airport, San Jose. And thank you s. CFO, mayor Lori, for allowing this to happen.

It’s time for this to happen in Miami. We’ll summarize it this way. Waymo has extremely big plans in Miami, and the inspector is here live on the ground, covering it for you. That was our journey to Miami. As you soften the video, we uncovered two depots, an operational depot in the Wynwood District, and a soon to be operational depot. By the Miami Airport, the inspector will be going around this year visiting Depots, uncovering the true scale of autonomy for you. Be sure to tune into the road to autonomy every Tuesday, autonomy markets every Saturday, and subscribe to this week in the Autonomy Economy Newsletter every Sunday. Visit road to autonomy.com. We have lots of great new, exciting content coming for you and oh, I’ll let you in on the sneak peek. We have another new show launching this year. The future is bright. The future is autonomous. The future is Waymo.