Zoox Robotaxis just launched and the cute, boxy cars are driving us into the future

Amazon's entry into the robotaxi market, Zoox, has just launched in Las Vegas and the driverless vehicle promises to shake up the industry with its boxy model that looks a bit like a toaster. The vehicle features two rows of seats that face each other with expansive windows on each side.

For now the Zoox robotaxis are free, but they can only drop passengers off at one of five Las Vegas Strip locations with plans to expand to many more locations in the near future. And as for the free rides, they will be in place until Zoox obtains regulatory approval.

What sets Zoox apart from its competitors in the driverless taxi category (Waymo and Tesla) is that it isn't a repurposed car. The Zoox mobile is set apart from its competitors by the fact that the robotaxi isn't a car: it doesn't have a steering wheel or pedals.

“You can shoehorn a robotaxi into something that used to be a car. It’s just not an ideal solution,” Zoox co-founder and technology chief Jesse Levinson told CNBC. “We use robotaxi or vehicle or Zoox. We wanted to do that hard work and take the time and invest in that, and then bring something to market that’s just much better than a car.”

For now, the Zoox robotaxis are free but they can only drop passengers off at one of five Las Vegas Strip locations with plans to expand to many more locations in the near future. Zoox

Company history

Zoox was founded in 2014, five years after Google started what became Waymo. It launched in Las Vegas this week with stops at five popular locations, including Resorts World, Topgolf, New York-New York, Luxor, and Area 15. Zoox is taking a different approach getting to market than Waymo, which teamed up with carmakers such as Chrysler, Jaguar, and Hyundai.

The company was founded by Australian entrepreneur Tim Kentley-Klay, who educated himself on autonomous cars by going around Silicon Valley and interviewing people in the industry. He told them he was a filmmaker working on a project.

Then, in 202,0 Amazon came calling and acquired Zoox for $1.2 billion.

The autonomous vehicles can reach speeds up to 75mph going forward or backward. It has four-wheel steering, known as crab steering.Zoox

The vehicle

The autonomous vehicles can reach speeds up to 75mph going forward or backward. It has four-wheel steering, known as crab steering.

“There’s no driver and it’s autonomous,” Levinson said. “Basically you have two seats facing two seats, so it’s much more comfortable. Even though the vehicle is quite small itself on the exterior, the interior is extremely roomy and spacious, so you have way more room to relax and enjoy. You can hang out with your friends and family and be able to actually see them and enjoy a nice conversation.”

Each robotaxi has rider controllable music and temperature settings, as well as wireless charging and USB-C charging ports.

The robotaxi is continuously scanning its surroundings, looking for vehicles, pedestrians, and objects in the road. A human driver can only look in one direction at a time when driving, whereas the Zoox has a 360-degree view of the road and its surroundings.

“We’ve driven many hundreds of thousands of miles here in Las Vegas with these robotaxis, plus millions of more miles with our test vehicles (Highlanders), so putting that all together is millions of miles,” Levinson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "We’ve done even more than that in simulations, which means we digitally simulate all kinds of scenarios including emergency situations, dangerous stuff that you hope to never experience," he added.

"You put all of that together and train our AI system and validate our AI system on all of that. So, by now when we are opening it up to the public, it’s been through so much, it’s able to drive significantly more safely than a human driver in the places we are allowed to drive.”