Zoox Coming to Dallas & Phoenix, Partnering with Uber in Las Vegas & Los Angeles

Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

Zoox sort of feels like “The Little Engine That Could.” For years, Waymo and Tesla have gotten almost all of the attention in the US for their robotaxi plans and progress — as well as Cruise, a bit, before it shut down. However, Zoox slid onto the scene sort of quietly and has since been progressing steadily with its little robotaxi shuttle vehicle. We have two news updates from the Amazon-backed robotaxi startup this week.

Uber × Zoox

Considering that Uber is partnering with every robotaxi company it can find, it comes as no surprise to find out that it’s also partnering with Zoox in its home-base city of Las Vegas. They are also going to be partnering in Los Angeles.

“As part of a multi-year agreement, a dedicated fleet of Zoox robotaxis will be available through the Uber app, beginning later this year in Las Vegas and next year in Los Angeles. We will continue to offer our service through the Zoox app, in addition to rides being available through Uber in those cities,” Zoox shares. It’s interesting — sometimes Uber gets exclusive rights in these kinds of deals, while at other times the robotaxi company operates its app in the city as well. For whatever reason, the deal here is that you can get a Zoox through Uber or through Zoox.

Zoox in Dallas & Phoenix Zoon

Zoox is now at a stage where it’s looking to expand geographically. It is undergoing testing in its 9th and 10th cities, Dallas and Phoenix.

“To support our growing operations, we will also be opening new depots in Phoenix and Dallas, as well as a new Fusion Center facility in Scottsdale, creating hundreds of jobs in these communities. With the addition of Dallas and Phoenix, our Zoox testing fleet now proudly operates across ten distinct markets: the San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, Seattle, Austin, Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Washington D.C.,” the company writes.

“Phoenix and Dallas are both rapidly growing metropolitan areas with high demand for ride-hailing and first- and last-mile connections. Expanding into these cities allows us to test in sprawling environments, differentiating this data from our testing in other dense metro areas like San Francisco.

“Crucially, these markets allow us to rigorously validate our technology’s resilience in diverse and challenging weather conditions. In Phoenix, we have the opportunity to test our sensor and battery performance against extreme heat and dust on high-speed roads. Dallas provides a valuable testing ground to refine our AI against diverse weather and complex road networks.”

There are going to be unique factors in every city. The big thing, for me, is getting into many markets and proving the tech broadly.

Zoox Strategy Paying Off

Admittedly, Zoox is no spring chicken. It has been working on its mission for more than a decade. It clearly took a different approach from leaders in the field, but that now seems to be proving itself as a smart decision. “Zoox was founded in 2014 on a bold belief: if you’re going to reinvent mobility, you have to start from scratch. Instead of retrofitting cars with autonomous technology, we designed the world’s first purpose-built robotaxi: fully autonomous, all-electric, bidirectional, and intentionally engineered around the rider experience. Since the very beginning, we’ve been focused on our vision of delivering safe and enjoyable mobility.”

If you’re now wondering why there are pictures of a Toyota in the section above, note that that’s just used for the stage of testing Zoox is at in those cities. Its normal custom designed vehicle will be used by the time it gets to commercial launch in those places.