GoKawiilIn a nutshell: Zoox is in a difficult position as it tries to enter San Francisco: It must win riders' attention and trust while Waymo already has a much larger presence in the city. So the company is using free rides, local partnerships, and a purpose-built vehicle to establish itself there while it waits for permission to charge passengers in California.
San Francisco has become one of the industry's key test markets, but it has also exposed the risks of deploying autonomous vehicles in dense city traffic. Cruise pulled its vehicles from the road in 2023 after several incidents, including one in which a vehicle ran over and dragged a pedestrian. Waymo has faced its own setbacks, including the death of a bodega cat that was struck by one of its vehicles last year.
Zoox is entering that environment with a smaller fleet and a vehicle that does not resemble a conventional car. The Amazon-owned company is far smaller than Waymo, the dominant robotaxi operator in the city. Zoox has about 100 autonomous vehicles, compared with nearly 4,000 for Waymo. But its vehicles are also markedly different. Zoox built its robotaxis from the ground up without steering wheels, pedals or a driver's seat. Passengers sit facing each other inside a compact, turquoise cabin.
That design is the company's clearest distinction from Waymo, which uses modified conventional vehicles. Waymo cars have become common on San Francisco streets, while Zoox's boxy pods remain unusual enough to attract attention from pedestrians and tourists.
Zoox opened its Rider Lounge in downtown San Francisco in May. The storefront serves as a pickup point for demonstration rides and a place for visitors to look inside the vehicles. The company began offering free rides in the city in November and expanded the program in June, adding trips to eight restaurants and several landmarks, including the Ferry Building, the Painted Ladies, and the Castro.
The service is still not commercial. Zoox can operate free rides in San Francisco, but it needs approvals from the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the California Public Utilities Commission before it can collect fares. The company said it has applied for a DMV deployment permit. The utilities commission's public permit list does not show Zoox as authorized to provide paid service.
"We are trying to get it as quickly as we can, but it is a couple-month process," Carly Wyatt, Zoox's vice president of communications and marketing, told The New York Times. "We own the fact that we're taking these baby steps."
The company has begun charging riders in Las Vegas, its first paid market. Fares there are slightly higher than standard Uber and Lyft trips. In July, federal regulators gave Zoox a temporary exemption from certain vehicle-safety rules, including requirements involving windshield wipers and rearview mirrors. The exemption allows the company to deploy up to 5,000 vehicles over the next two years and collect fares.
Zoox is also working to make its vehicles familiar to people who may not have tried a robotaxi. It has sponsored the Stern Grove Festival, North Beach Festival, and Flower Piano in Golden Gate Park. The company has also partnered with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and local businesses, including restaurants featured as destinations in its ride program.
Wyatt described the effort as a "community-first approach." Zoox has treated restaurants, events, and tourist sites as ways to introduce people to the service rather than relying solely on app-based ride-hailing.
... continue reading