How Do I Get Robotaxi Companies to Use My Property?

Decide which job your property can do for a fleet, then pitch the company that buys that job. It is often not the robotaxi brand.

Most owners start by trying to email Waymo or Tesla. That rarely works, because the buyer depends on the job. A depot lease may be signed by a rental car company. A charging site may go to a charging company. A few staging spaces may be leased by the operator itself.

What jobs can a property do for a robotaxi fleet?

• Depot. Charging, cleaning, repairs and overnight parking. These are big: Lyft’s Nashville depot for Waymo is 80,000 square feet, and Zoox’s Las Vegas warehouse is 190,000.^{1 2}
• Staging. A few dozen spaces near riders, where cars wait between trips. Waymo will lease 40 dedicated parking spaces at Caltrain stations to stage vehicles for transit riders, and hopes to repeat the model with other transit agencies.³
• Charging. Fast chargers fleets can use. Voltera and Revel are combining into a company with more than 1,000 charging stalls built or planned across 11 metros for autonomous and ride-hail fleets.⁴
• Pickup and drop-off. A set spot where riders get in and out. Phoenix Sky Harbor offers Waymo curbside pickup at Terminals 3 and 4, 24 hours a day.⁵

Who buys each job?

• Depots: the operator’s fleet partner. Hertz set up a unit called Oro Mobility to handle charging, maintenance, cleaning and depot staffing for Uber’s robotaxis.⁶ Waymo uses partners such as Lyft’s Flexdrive in Nashville.¹
• Staging and pickup: usually the operator, as with Waymo’s Caltrain spaces.³
• Charging: companies that build and run fleet charging. Voltera says it prioritizes sites compatible with fleet and autonomous vehicle operations.⁴
• Hubs for private robotaxi owners: new developers. Fleetport plans hubs for 100 to 250 robotaxis each near six airports, opening in 2027.⁷

Is my property in the right place?

It has to be inside or near a robotaxi service area, close to where rides start and end: stations, airports, hotels, venues, dense neighborhoods. A small lot inside the zone can be worth more than a big one outside it, because every trip to and from the edge is driven empty. We worked through that in Six Lost Hours a Day.

How do I get my site in front of them?

• Pick the job your site can do today, not the one it could do after a major build-out.
• Find who buys that job in your city: the fleet partner named in the latest launch announcement, a charging company building there, or the operator’s partnerships team.
• Send a one-page site package: address, spaces, zoning, power, hours and access. The full list is in Can I Lease My Land to Waymo or Tesla for a Robotaxi Depot?
• Say what you will not allow: the hours, how many spaces, and what happens when you need them back. We wrote about part-time terms in What If Your Parking Could Earn Until You Needed It Back?
• List the site where fleets look for space.

What we do not know

• What operators pay for staging spaces or pickup rights. Waymo’s Caltrain announcement does not give a price.³
• How many robotaxis will be owned by individuals rather than big fleets. Fleetport is betting there will be many; nobody has published numbers.⁷
• Which operators will use third-party staging at scale. The Caltrain lease is the clearest public example we have found.³

Own a lot, garage or charging site in a robotaxi city? List your property free. Tell us its size, hours and power, and we will tell you which job it fits.