Amazon-owned Zoox is letting the public roam free with its robotaxis in San Francisco for now.
Zoox
Zoox, Amazon’s self-driving technology company, has begun offering rides to the public in its custom-built robotaxis in San Francisco, following a similar launch in Las Vegas. For now, rides in the electric microvan, which has no steering wheel, mirrors or pedals, are free, but commercial service will begin next year if Zoox wins the first federal exemption to operate such vehicles.
US auto safety rules require automakers to install standard controls, as well as windshields and wipers, in human-powered vehicles, but AI-driven cars and trucks don’t need them. Zoox already has permission from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to test its vehicle – which looks like a small train – on public roads and offer free rides. A so-called Part 555 exemption will allow it to someday operate thousands of them in a commercial fleet, said co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson Forbes.
“It will be next year,” he said. “NHTSA and Zoox agreed to pursue this path for our unique vehicle architecture that does not have traditional manual controls. We started with the research exemption, which allows us to provide free rides. The next step is the commercial exemption, which allows us to charge a fare and operate up to 2,500 vehicles per year.”
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With Waymo rapidly expanding its robotaxi service to more cities, Elon Musk claiming Tesla is close to doing the same – despite evidence to the contrary – and Uber, Volkswagen, Rivian, Nuro, Lucid, Mobileye and other companies competing in the market, federal and state regulators are struggling to keep up. If it wins approval, Zoox’s robotaxi will be a step beyond what industry leader Waymo has accomplished, though it will likely be quickly followed by many competitors.
Zoox’s robotaxis have inward-facing “carrier” seats.
Zoox
Musk this month said Tesla will begin producing its Cybercab model in Texas as an autonomous vehicle without conventional controls by April 2026. However, the company has yet to request a waiver from NHTSA under current Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Forbes.
Zoox’s public program in San Francisco, like the one it already operates in Las Vegas, is an “early-on initiative” intended to help the company before it scales commercial services there. It has been tested in the city since 2017. Unlike Las Vegas, where autonomous cabs take passengers to fixed drop-off and pick-up locations for now, the service in San Francisco will operate on a “point-to-point” basis, Levinson said.
“It’s a big deal for us, apart from being our second city,” he said. “In Las Vegas, we’re starting to focus on important pick-up and drop-off locations like major hotels, major entertainment destinations. In San Francisco, you can just enter an address, select a point of interest, or even drop a pin on the map and we’ll get you as close as possible to where you want to be picked up and take you within a block, exactly where you want to go.”
Founded in 2014 by Levinson and Tim Kentley-Klay, who left in 2018, Zoox is based in Foster City, California, and manufactures its robotaxis in a 220,000-square-foot factory in nearby Hayward. It currently manages a fleet of 50 vehicles, but is set to grow rapidly over the next year. The small two-way robocamps, with sliding train-style doors, are loaded with sensors, including eight lidar lasers. 10 radar units. 18 digital cameras. eight microphones (to hear emergency vehicles, for example); and four thermal cameras that can detect people and animals in dark weather, low light, or even through steam and fog.
