Overview
- Zoox, in a Tuesday announcement, said it will quadruple its San Francisco coverage, add Las Vegas Strip, convention and event pickups, and begin staged deployments in Austin and Miami later this year.
- Access will start with employees and their family and friends, then expand to waitlist and Explorer program riders, while Las Vegas continues to offer free public rides through the Zoox app.
- The company still operates under a federal demonstration exemption and has a Part 555 request under review after a March 11 public comment start, which it needs before it can charge for trips.
- Zoox reports nearly two million autonomous miles, about 350,000 riders and roughly 500,000 people on waitlists, with a fleet near 100 vehicles and mass production planned in Hayward later this year at a target of about three cars per hour.
- Riders will see new features such as more precise ETAs, a Find My Zoox light-and-sound cue, and Bluetooth audio, as Zoox readies Uber app integration in Las Vegas this summer and remains far smaller than Waymo’s paid fleets in many cities.