The self-driving cars gliding around downtown Nashville have to sleep somewhere. On Oct. 12, that place officially opens: an 80,000-square-foot depot, built into a former post office building near Nashville International Airport, designed to charge, clean, inspect and repair hundreds of autonomous vehicles.
Who runs it, and why it matters
The depot is operated by Flexdrive, the fleet-management arm of Lyft. Flexdrive took over day-to-day care of Waymo’s Nashville fleet earlier this year, as riders gained the ability to be matched with a Waymo vehicle through the Lyft app. It is the practical follow-through on a partnership first announced in September 2025, which we covered when Waymo and Lyft first promised autonomous rides in Nashville.
The idea is simple: a robotaxi earns money only when it is carrying passengers. Every hour a car spends waiting for a charge, a wipe-down or a sensor check is an hour it is not on the road. A purpose-built hub lets the fleet cycle through those chores quickly and get back to work.
What goes on inside
The building will run around the clock in three shifts. Dozens of fast-charging stations let vehicles come in, be inspected and validated, get cleaned and charge up before heading back out. The electrical infrastructure is sized for hundreds of vehicles, and further charging locations around the service area are planned to supplement the main depot with quick top-ups.
Lyft’s own description of the project emphasizes the same priority: keep the cars on the street as much as possible, with the main depot handling heavier servicing and smaller sites handling fast turnarounds.
The jobs
The facility is expected to create more than 70 new full-time positions this year, with hundreds more anticipated in the coming years. The roles include technicians, fleet operations managers, repair coordinators and maintenance specialists. When Lyft first described the depot in the spring, about half of the positions filled so far had gone to current or former Lyft drivers, a notable path for people whose jobs might otherwise be disrupted by the technology the depot supports.
Why the airport location
Waymo’s team has pointed to the site’s proximity to the airport as strategically important, and said the facility should help shorten wait times for passengers. For a city where the airport keeps setting records, a hub nearby puts the fleet close to one of the busiest destinations in the region. If you want a sense of how much traffic that airport is handling, see our look at the day 116,047 people passed through it…