Waymo has announced that the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) voted to approve its effort to establish the company’s manufacturing presence to build its self-driving vehicles in the state of Michigan, which will create hundreds of jobs along the way.

“Thanks to our collaboration with MEDC, we’ll bring new job opportunities to the talented citizens of Southeast Michigan,” Waymo says in a company blog post.

“The Great Lakes State is one we already know and love, with a talented workforce and excellent snowy conditions for our cars to test.”

To start, Waymo will identify a facility in Southeast Michigan, and over the next few years, it will look to create hundreds of local jobs in the community. Waymo says that it will be looking for engineers, operations experts, and fleet coordinators to join its team and help assemble and deploy the company’s self-driving cars.

Waymo adds that this will be the “first factory 100%-dedicated to the mass production of L4 autonomous vehicles” in the world.

“As we begin to commercialize our business and vehicle supply grows, we’re laying the foundation for a scalable, robust vehicle integration plan, starting in Michigan,” Waymo says. 

Waymo develops hardware and software in-house, so that its self-driving technology works as a seamless, single system.

The company says that an important part of that process is integrating its self-driving system into the vehicles it purchases for its fleet, including Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Jaguar Land Rover.

Waymo adds that it is partnering with Magna to help integrate its self-driving system into its fleet of different vehicles, with a team hired exclusively for the company’s work.