Zoox is bringing its custom-built robotaxis to Austin, Texas and Miami, Florida after nearly two years of running its test vehicles in the cities. The company said Tuesday it plans to start offering rides at both locations later this year as part of its early rider program.
Zoox also announced that it is expanding its service areas to San Francisco and Las Vegas. San Francisco’s service area quadruples in size with a focus on the “eastern half of the city” for people who participate in Zoox’s early rider program.
In Las Vegas, where free rides are available to anyone with the Zoox app, the company says it’s doubling the number of destinations to include The Sphere, T-Mobile Arena and the Las Vegas Convention Center. Zoox already drops off and picks up riders at Area15, Top Golf and the Las Vegas Fashion Show. Zoox will begin testing its robotaxi at the Las Vegas airport to prepare for future services as well, the company said Tuesday.
For now, Zoox can only offer free rides to customers due to federal restrictions it is working to lift. And it has made some progress on that front.
The National Road Safety Agency began taking public comments this month regarding Zoox’s application to obtain exemptions from certain Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Zoox needs these exemptions to launch commercial services with paid routes.
The company sounds optimistic about getting them, and earlier this month announced a partnership with Uber that will make Zoox’s robotaxis available on the giant’s Las Vegas network later this year.
Zoox said Tuesday that its robotaxis has logged “nearly two million autonomous miles” and carried “over 350,000 riders” to date. He also said he’s been collecting feedback from many of those riders, leading to new features like bluetooth audio connectivity on the robotaxis (which he calls “ZooxCast”) and a “Find My Zoox” feature that will help riders find the robotaxi they’ve hailed in crowded locations.
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The Amazon-owned self-driving car company is not expanding as fast as Alphabet-owned Waymo, which plans to launch commercial services in 20 new cities worldwide this year. However, Zoox is having a busy year. It recently began mapping the streets of Dallas and Phoenix ahead of trials in those cities. It’s already being tested in Washington, D.C., Seattle, Washington, Los Angeles and Atlanta.
