Amazon’s Zoox Kicks Off Free Self-Driving Taxi Service in Las Vegas

Zoox, an Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company, has begun to operate a public robotaxi service in Las Vegas! For now, the service is free, and riders can take a ride from five stops along the strip. The goal for the service is to expand the coverage area to allow for broader operation as demand allows. Riders can hail the autonomous vehicles exclusively through the Zoox mobile app, available on iPhone and Android. The company is awaiting regulatory approval to begin charging fares.

Zoox builds its vehicles for fully autonomous driving and has a distinct appearance since there are no steering wheels or pedals. The vehicles incorporate navigation and safety systems based on lidar, radar, and various cameras. They can go as fast as 45 mph. The seating is arranged so that passengers face each other. Research shows that autonomous vehicles have lower overall crash frequencies than when humans drive, and the safety systems reduce crash risk by 20% to 50% in the same driving situations.

"This is a very differentiating experience that you want people to sort of get to understand and know the robotaxi, get used to it, and give us feedback too," Zoox Chief Executive Aicha Evans told Reuters. "That's good for the community, that's good for the riders, and that's good for Zoox."

Over the past month, Zoox has been operating a test loop ride out of a Las Vegas casino. "We've actually been getting thousands of riders every week just from this one location, which actually quite exceeded our expectations," Chief Technology Officer Jesse Levinson stated.

Zoox has secured a federal waiver permitting the use of vehicles without traditional controls and recently received an exemption from NHTSA to demonstrate its technology on public roads. The company collects and analyzes operational data to retrain its fleet while fulfilling Nevada's regulatory requirements for safety reporting and accident reporting.

The autonomous vehicle market has many hurdles, ranging from legislation to public demonstrations, federal investigations, and exorbitant costs of operation, which have led aspiring autonomous vehicle startups to bankruptcy. While the hurdles are in front of the autonomous vehicle market, the global robotaxi market is forecast to grow to $39 billion by 2030. Zoox owns manufacturing capacity in Hayward, California, so it can manufacture approximately 10,000 robotaxis annually, providing it the ability to compete with other companies that are operating in the rapidly evolving autonomous ride-hailing market, for example, Waymo, Uber, and Lyft.