NHTSA caps initial Zoox fleet at 5,000 vehicles, restricts roads
Amazon’s Zoox began charging for robotaxi rides in Las Vegas and started driverless operations in San Francisco, according to the company, marking the first time purpose-built robotaxis without steering wheels or pedals have carried paying members of the public in the United States.
The toaster-shaped vehicles are designed to drive in either direction and hold up to four passengers who sit facing each other, with windows that stretch across much of the sides. Zoox Chief Executive Aicha Evans said building the vehicle from the ground up let the company respond more quickly to rider feedback. “It takes a lot of imagination, belief, resilience and tenacity to do this when you’re going against conventional wisdom,” Evans said.
According to The Wall Street Journal, regulators are approaching these new rides cautiously. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last month authorized Zoox to charge for rides in up to 5,000 vehicles within the next two years, but it barred Zoox taxis from roads with heavy rain, snow, large quantities of leaves or a speed limit of more than 45 mph. The agency also required that the vehicles provide riders a message, either posted within the vehicle or on the Zoox app, that directs them to a link where they can submit a complaint to NHTSA.
Amazon enters a robotaxi market with established competitors. Alphabet’s Waymo, the early leader, operates roughly 4,000 vehicles in various cities. Tesla has begun volume production of the Cybercab, which lacks a steering wheel and pedals, but the company has not received the same regulatory approval as Zoox to begin offering rides to the public. Goldman Sachs projects the robotaxi market will grow to nearly $19 billion in sales by 2030, from $376 million last year.
Zoox, founded in 2014 on the idea of making the first purpose-built robotaxi, was acquired by Amazon in 2020 for $1.2 billion. In 2022, Zoox self-certified its cars as compliant with NHTSA’s Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, a step that would have eliminated barriers to deployment. The agency objected: in addition to lacking manual controls such as brake pedals that are involved in safety tests, the cars did not use the right type of glass or side reflectors, NHTSA said.
“There’s stuff that they could have and should have done that had nothing to do with not having a driver that they failed to do,” said Phil Koopman, an emeritus engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University who specializes in autonomous vehicles.
NHTSA granted Zoox an exemption from the safety standards last year and allowed the company to offer free demonstration rides. Zoox says its vehicles have logged more than 3 million driverless miles on public roads and carried nearly 1 million riders. The company has a fleet of about 100 vehicles and assembles them at a Hayward, California, plant spanning 3½ football fields, with capacity to produce as many as 10,000 robotaxis a year.
A NHTSA spokeswoman said the agency is modernizing its standards “to remove mandates that assume the presence of human drivers, such as manual brake pedals, transmission shifters, and windshield wipers and defrosters, while maintaining all relevant safety performance requirements.” The agency is also developing performance standards for autonomous vehicles.
Choosing to build a custom vehicle carries risks, according to Alex Roy, an autonomous-vehicle expert and partner at New Industry Venture Capital. Roy said designing and manufacturing a purpose-built robotaxi is the most difficult path to deployment because of the time and money required for software development, manufacturing and safety testing. “This vehicle decision is the ultimate risk factor,” he said. “The stars have to align in every dimension of the business for that to become viable.” Waymo also developed a prototype robotaxi without a steering wheel, though the company retired the design in 2017 and moved forward with retrofitting existing cars with sensors that enable humanless driving.
Zoox rides cost roughly the same as the comfort option of other ride-share services, a Zoox spokeswoman said. Some riders expressed initial apprehension. Med Trimdal, a retired electrical engineer in Las Vegas who tried a Zoox taxi in June, said the lack of a driver felt disconcerting at first. After a few minutes, he said, he felt at ease. “It was exciting to witness something that seemed like science fiction.”
Lora and Dillon Harp, who live in Trenton, Missouri, rode in Zoox twice in Las Vegas in May. Lora Harp, 38, a travel agent, said she preferred Zoox for its privacy. “I like that it’s private, that there’s not anybody else in the vehicle,” she said.
Zoox is testing in Austin, Texas, and Miami, where it plans to start service soon.