If you’re hoping to get a ride in one of the toaster-style robotaxis from Zoox, the odds are about to improve as the company’s announced it will expand its operations in four cities: San Francisco, Las Vegas, Austin and Miami.
The announcement comes just a day after General Motors outlined its plans to begin testing its AI-based “eyes-off” variant of Super Cruise. Testing begins in Detroit and San Fracisco using specially equipped Cadillac Escalade IQ SUVs. They’re joined by several companies in various stages of autonomous technology development, including Waymo, Tesla, Nuro, Aurora Innovation, Motional, to name a few.
This marks the second time this month, the Amazon-owned company has revealed plans to expand. On March 9, it said it will establish its first fleet of vehicles in Phoenix and was adding a fleet in Dallas.
“This expansion marks a significant step forward for Zoox and is driven by the insights from our early deployments,” said Aicha Evans, CEO, in a statement. “This is our year of growth. We are actively implementing learnings to confidently and safely scale our robotaxi service across the country and bring our differentiated experience to even more riders.”
Zoox plans to expand service fourfold in San Francisco, providing coverage to a large section of the eastern half of the city. In Las Vegas, it’s doubling the number of locations to get service, including the Las Vegas Convention Center as well as most hotels on the Las Vegas Strip. In Vegas, the company is beginning shift from retrofitted vehicles to its toaster-on-wheels vehicles.
Like Las Vegas, Austin and Miami have been testing retrofitted vehicles and will begin the shift to Zoox’s purpose-built model, which doesn’t have any driver controls, but can carry up to six people at one time. Those vehicles will arrive in small numbers with Zoox employees and their families getting the first experiences. The size and coverage area will grow as the new models pass certain milestones, the company noted.
The Zoox robocabs cater to tech-savvy ride-share users. That starts with needing to use the app to secure a ride to the ZooxCast which allows riders to connect their Bluetooth-enabled devices to stream audio the vehicle.
Other improvements to the toaster, include “Find My Zoox,” a feature where the robotaxi uses distinct lighting and sound cues to help riders identify their specific robotaxi in crowded pickup zones.
[Images: Zoox]
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