Motional Expands West Coast Presence

BOSTON, Aug. 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Motional, a global leader in driverless technology, is excited to announce that we're growing our West Coast operations. The expansion follows 18 months of high growth for Motional during which we closed the formation of our joint venture, extended our Asia operations to Seoul, and grew our headcount by almost 50%.

This next move comes as Motional accelerates towards mass commercialization, which includes a landmark agreement with Lyft to launch a multimarket fully driverless service starting in 2023, and further establishes Motional as one of the world's key AV players. We've had a presence in Los Angeles for more than five years, and are now increasing our investment in California with a new operations facility and road testing in the Los Angeles area, a new San Francisco Bay Area office, and extensive hiring that will more than double the size of our California team.

Motional cements Los Angeles foothold; doubles team, opens new facility, and begins testing 

We were one of the first AV companies to establish a presence in Los Angeles when we opened our Santa Monica facility in 2016. Since then, our Southern California team has rapidly grown and now represents integral functions of Motional's machine learning and hardware groups. With Motional's new investment in California, that team will grow by more than double this year and has moved to a larger location in Santa Monica.

Along with a bigger team, we're also expanding our R&D operations in Los Angeles and will open a new operational facility and begin public road mapping and testing this month, with our next-generation robotaxi. This will mark the first time Motional is testing in Los Angeles and the activity will complement our ongoing testing in Boston, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, and Singapore.

"Los Angeles has long been an important part of Motional's global operations that span across the U.S. and Asia, and today we're happy to announce that we're doubling down on our West Coast footprint. This expansion is the latest in our growth trajectory and will position Motional with the talent, testing capabilities, and R&D resources we need to deliver on our commercialization roadmap," commented Karl Iagnemma, Motional's President and CEO.

Motional opens first-ever Bay Area office

In addition to our Southern California hub, we've opened our first-ever office in the Bay Area. The office is home to a division of our Compute Design team and features a Compute Lab.

"The opening of our Bay Area office reaffirms Motional's commitment to attracting the most innovative talent in the driverless industry," said Sammy Omari, Vice President of Autonomy in Engineering at Motional. "With our significant presence on the East and West Coasts, now including Silicon Valley, we're able to reach a large segment of the incredible talent pool. We're excited to offer these opportunities to new team members and look forward to welcoming those who are at the forefront of autonomy technology."

The future of scalable driverless technology

We are building a network of driverless vehicles to serve everyone, everywhere. This means our R&D can't be focused on one city or region. The diversity of our teams, operations, and testing is critical to developing truly scalable technology.

We have long prioritized a diverse, global footprint – Motional was the first in our industry to have operations in the U.S. and Asia. Through this footprint, we've built an incredibly strong team of international talent and developed uniquely robust testing capabilities. Our vehicles are routinely exposed to left- and right-hand driving, complex and high-traffic roadways, a wide variety of driving behaviors, and a multitude of weather and environmental conditions.

That said, our team and vehicles are never going to be 'done.' We'll always be growing, learning, and improving. California is the next stop. Come join us.

About Motional
Motional is a driverless technology company making self-driving vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality.

The Motional team was behind some of the industry's largest leaps forward, including the first fully-autonomous cross-country drive in the U.S, the launch of the world's first robotaxi pilot, and operation of the world's most-established public robotaxi fleet.

Motional is a joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group, one of the world's largest vehicle manufacturers offering smart mobility solutions, and Aptiv, a global technology leader in advanced safety, electrification, and vehicle connectivity.

Headquartered in Boston, Motional has operations in the U.S and Asia. For more information, visit  www.Motional.com and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

SOURCE Motional