Lyft Self-Driving Depot for Waymo Opens in Nashville

Nashville, TN – May 7, 2025 – Lyft has switched on a new robotaxi support hub near Nashville, converting an 80,000-square-foot former U.S. Postal Service facility into a depot built for Alphabet-backed Waymo’s self-driving cars.

The facility is operated by Flexdrive, Lyft’s rental-car arm, and opened Thursday. Lyft confirmed on Friday that Waymo autonomous vehicles will begin pulling into the site later this month for charging, cleaning, repairs, and other maintenance between passenger trips.

Staffed by about 70 full-time employees, the depot is equipped with "dozens of chargers capable of supporting hundreds of autonomous vehicles," plus repair bays and secure parts storage, Lyft said.

Behind the robotaxi boom: physical infrastructure

Self-driving fleets depend on more than clever software. Every autonomous ride is backed by a growing physical footprint of garages, chargers, and service lanes. The Nashville depot is a clear reminder that the AV economy is as much about real estate as it is about algorithms.

Ride-hailing companies like Lyft and Uber have been investing in this kind of infrastructure, and so have EV-charging firms that want to be part of the robotaxi supply chain. The Nashville hub gives Lyft a strategic foothold in the Southeast, where Waymo has been evaluating expanded operations beyond its existing service areas.

The location is especially useful because of its access to major highways and the nearby airport. That makes it easier to move vehicles in and out of the city and position them for future regional launches. Rather than building from scratch, Lyft chose to retrofit an existing logistics site — a pattern that may become more common as AV companies try to control costs and speed up rollouts.

A second act for ride-hail drivers

A notable share of the new depot’s first hires are former Lyft drivers. That is intentional. For people whose jobs are being reshaped by autonomous technology, depot work offers a path into fleet operations.

Colin Parks, Lyft’s operations leader for the site, told Business Insider in June that workers are welcome to build new skills at the depot and later move elsewhere. "If you want to get skilled up while you’re working at one of our depots and then go work somewhere else, great," Parks said.

The approach points to a larger trend: as robotaxis displace some traditional driving jobs, new roles are emerging in vehicle servicing, charging management, and logistics. Lyft says the Nashville facility could add "hundreds of jobs in the coming years."

More than a parking lot

The depot is not just a garage. It includes high-power EV chargers, workshop bays, and diagnostic systems tuned for Waymo’s autonomous vehicles, including its Jaguar I-PACE fleet. Sensors such as lidar and camera arrays require careful handling during maintenance, and the secure parts storage on site is built for those sensitive components.

Flexdrive’s team says the combination of charging infrastructure and vehicle-connectivity tools makes the hub scalable. The same playbook could be replicated in other cities if Lyft deepens its partnership with Waymo or works with other autonomous vehicle developers.

Nashville itself fits the profile of a city that robotaxi operators tend to target: manageable traffic, a growing tech ecosystem, and local officials who have welcomed mobility innovation. With a physical depot already in place, Lyft is better positioned to support on-demand service in the region without having to rush construction later.

A strategic shift for Lyft

Lyft’s relationship with Waymo has progressed from pilot programs to a more operational collaboration. The Nashville depot is one of the most tangible signs of that evolution — it places Lyft inside the robotaxi service chain rather than just the customer-facing app.

The broader message to investors and competitors is clear: Lyft intends to build AV infrastructure as a core part of its business, not an experiment. Whether more former postal depots get converted remains to be seen, but Lyft’s move gives it a template for entering new markets quickly and cost-effectively.

For self-driving cars, a place to plug in and be serviced matters just as much as the autonomy stack itself. Nashville is now proof of that.