Zoox Self-Driving Taxis Set for San Francisco, Vegas

Amazon-owned Zoox is the latest company set to introduce its self-driving taxis to the streets of San Francisco and Las Vegas.

The breakthrough was confirmed by CEO Jesse Levinson at a tech conference held in San Francisco.

Levinson said that his company’s purpose-built autonomous vehicles (AVs) – which do not feature a steering wheel or other traditional driving controls – will be ready for deployment in the “next few weeks.”

The rollout will get under way in San Francisco’s SoMa area before expanding to other districts. At the same time, the AVs will also appear on the Vegas strip.

However, initially at least, the numbers of vehicles involved will be small, with the operational areas gradually expanded over time.

“We’re actually going to have a couple dozen Zoox robotaxis across our Foster City, San Francisco and Las Vegas geofences that will expand several fold over the next year,” Levinson said.

“And then 2026 is when we’re going to really start cranking out production vehicles at very large scale.”

For more self-driving vehicle and other embedded tech news subscribe to our free newsletter!

The CEO added that this “measured approach” was a strategic decision, not least because Zoox does not yet have a vast fleet of robotaxis ready to be deployed.

Related:Tesla Tests Self-Driving Taxi Service in San Francisco

The AVs will operate for 16 hours a day – “but the most busy 16 hours,” Levinson continued. Because the roads are quieter through the night, there is less benefit for Zoox to operate then in terms of data generation.

The first passengers to benefit will be invited “Zoox explorers,” mirroring Waymo’s methodology where only selected customers were able to access services at first.

More details are promised early next year, with operations in Vegas likely to be launched first, as it is technically less challenging.

“We are working with many of the major resort properties up and down that Vegas strip so that we can pick up and drop off passengers at their main hotel entrances, which no other autonomous vehicle has done autonomously before,” added Levinson.

The Zoox taxi differs from those currently offered by the likes of Waymo and Cruise – which are essentially converted production passenger cars – in that it was designed from the ground up to be autonomous.

It offers seating capacity for four, and a 133 kWh battery provides a lengthy range. Four-wheel steering delivers great maneuverability in urban streets.

Zoox’s breakthrough follows a busy few weeks in the self-driving taxi segment, with Tesla claiming it is ready to offer driverless rides next year after unveiling its planned Cybercab, Waymo securing a deal with Hyundai to develop IONIQ 5 robotaxis and netting $5.6 billion in investment and China’s Baidu looking to expand its Apollo Go service globally.

Related:Waymo to Offer Hyundai Self-Driving Taxis Starting in 2026