Amazon-owned Zoox has received a temporary exemption from U.S. safety regulators, clearing it to charge for robotaxi rides. The company will launch paid service in Las Vegas next month, while regulators tie the exemption to oversight conditions and ongoing scrutiny over incidents involving first responders.
Amazon-owned Zoox will start charging for robotaxi rides in Las Vegas next month after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration granted the company a temporary exemption from federal vehicle safety rules on Thursday. The exemption allows Zoox to deploy up to 2,500 vehicles annually for two years, subject to an oversight structure the agency said would adapt as Zoox's technology advances.
Zoox CEO Aicha Evans said the approval represents an important milestone for the company and the broader autonomous-vehicle industry. According to Zoox: Evans called it "the first-ever commercial exemption for a purpose-built robotaxi from NHTSA". A company spokesperson said additional markets will follow Las Vegas as Zoox meets state commercialization requirements.
From free rides to paid fares
Last August, NHTSA had already granted Zoox an exemption to demonstrate its robotaxis on public roads, but the company still lacked clearance to charge fares. Since then, Zoox has expanded its U.S. testing locations and let the public hail free driverless rides in parts of San Francisco and Las Vegas. Thursday's exemption is the step that finally lets it collect fares.
A different vehicle, a different rulebook
Zoox has faced a more difficult path to commercializing its robotaxi than rivals such as Alphabet's Waymo. Waymo relies on retrofitted cars that keep a steering wheel and brakes, but Zoox's shuttles lack traditional driver controls, which subjects them to different federal motor vehicle safety standards. NHTSA has recently proposed updating those standards to drop the requirement that driverless cars include steering wheels and manual brake pedals.
First-responder concerns trigger a recall
NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison wrote in a letter earlier this month that the agency has identified a pattern of driverless vehicles interfering with law enforcement and other first responders, citing cases where autonomous vehicles entered active emergency scenes or failed to react to flashing lights, flares and smoke. Following that letter, Zoox recalled 105 of its robotaxis to fix a software issue that let vehicles drive into heavy smoke instead of detecting it. Last month, one of its robotaxis drove into an active emergency fire scene in Las Vegas, the company said.
Source: NHTSA
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