Zoox rides via Uber begin this summer in Las Vegas and next year in LA. It’s currently a free service, but that’s because the company has yet to receive federal approval for paid rides.
Uber and Amazon’s Zoox are teaming up to allow customers in Las Vegas and Los Angeles to book Zoox rides via the Uber app.
The partnership is set to take effect this summer in Las Vegas and next year in Los Angeles. Uber says it will share more details about how it’ll work in the app closer to launch.
This will be the first time Zoox has partnered with a third-party service for ride-hailing. The company currently offers free public rides in Las Vegas through its own Zoox app (We took it for a spin in September), and said it will continue to do so even after it goes live on the Uber app.
Zoox describes itself as a company that develops vehicles intended for autonomous ride-hailing. Unlike Waymo’s Jaguar I-Pace cars or Tesla’s Model Ys, Zoox AVs don’t have a steering wheel or pedals. They resemble toasters, and passengers sit facing each other on the inside.
The company has yet to receive federal approval for paid rides. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Tuesday began accepting public comments on Amazon’s petition to deploy 2.500 Zoox robotaxis without a steering wheel.
Zoox robotaxis are also available for free public rides in San Francisco. Those interested can sign up and join a waitlist. And it’s conducting trials in Atlanta, Austin, Miami, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Washington, DC.
Earlier this week, Zoox announced plans to begin tests in Dallas and Phoenix as well, though that will initially feature retrofitted SUVs on the road for manual mapping, not autonomous rides.Once the AVs hit the market, their biggest competition will be Google’s Waymo. The platform completes 400.000 paid rides per week and hopes to hit 1 million by the end of this year. It’s also an Uber partner; you can call a Waymo using the Uber app in Austin and Atlanta.
