Amazon's Zoox strikes its first outside deal, putting robotaxis on Uber's app

Zoox and Uber $UBER +4.05% announced a partnership Wednesday to make Zoox robotaxis available through the Uber app, the first time Amazon $AMZN +0.87%'s autonomous vehicle unit has agreed to offer rides on a third-party platform, the companies said.

Under the multiyear agreement, Zoox vehicles will be available to Uber riders in Las Vegas starting this summer and in Los Angeles by mid-2027, according to Uber. Zoox will continue to operate its own app alongside the Uber offering in both cities.

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“This partnership is an opportunity to continue advancing the use of autonomous mobility in daily life,” Zoox CEO Aicha Evans said in a statement. “Through our collaboration, Zoox will provide a differentiated rider experience to those who already know and love the convenience of riding with Uber.”

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi described Zoox vehicles as “purpose-built from the ground up” and called Zoox’s safety record and autonomous technology a fit for the partnership.

Zoox’s vehicles are custom-built for ride-hailing rather than adapted from conventional passenger cars. They are bidirectional, fully electric, and feature seats that face each other, according to CNBC. The vehicles can reach 75 mph but tend to run at 45 mph or less in normal operation.

Zoox has logged more than one million autonomous miles and served over 300,000 riders to date, the company said. It began offering free driverless rides in Las Vegas and certain San Francisco neighborhoods last year, but has not yet offered paid rides, according to CNBC.

Zoox is pursuing federal permission to put as many as 2,500 of its vehicles into commercial service on U.S. roads. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began accepting public comments on that request Tuesday, according to CNBC. Until now, regulators have only cleared the company to use its vehicles for research and demonstrations.

For Uber, the deal extends its push to position its platform as the primary distribution channel for autonomous vehicle operators. Khosrowshahi has argued that ride-hail platforms offer autonomous vehicle operators better economics than going it alone. On Uber’s fourth-quarter earnings call in February, he said vehicles on Uber’s network complete 30% more trips per day than those on independent apps, a claim he attributed to publicly available data, according to CNBC.

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