Google is breaking ground on a self-driving car facility near Detroit, Michigan.
John Krafcik, the CEO of Alphabet's driverless car project, announced the news on Twitter Wednesday. The 53,000 sq.-ft. development center is located in Novi, Michigan — a 40-minute drive from Detroit.
"Many of our current partners are based here, so having a local facility will help us collaborate more easily and access Michigan's top talent in vehicle development and engineering," Google wrote in a Google+ post about the new facility.
One of the first tasks of the new driverless car facility will be to ready Google's driverless Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans. Krafcik noted on Twitter that the facility will help Google prepare the "next generation" of its driverless vehicles.
—John Krafcik (@johnkrafcik) May 25, 2016
Google employees will begin moving into the facility throughout 2016, but there's still work to be done before it's up-and-running.
On February 28, Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion suit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses suffered due to the company's advertising practices.