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Yay! A tiny minuscule bit of my code is riding on these. While I no longer work there, I am absolutely thrilled at this milestone

1. Congratulations everyone! Yay!

2. I absolutely recommend Zoox as a great place to work. Believes me, I’ve sampled many jobs, Zoox is up there with Google in terms of what the experience feels like in my experience.

3. Yay again!

I was just in Vegas and saw these rolling around. They seem to have a mix of robotaxis (like the ones pictured) and decked out Toyota Highlanders that look like Waymos but not as well "packaged", though in my personal experience I saw far more of the Highlanders than the custom robotaxis and all of them seemed to have a driver behind the wheel.

Vegas is an interesting place to launch IMO (and I believe they only operate in/around the strip). On the one hand all they really have to navigate is the strip which is just one giant straight road. But on the other hand most casinos on the strip have their entrances in the back and once you get off the strip and try to go up to one of these casinos it's a maze of roads. But that only speaks to the technical hurdles, I'm sure a big part of the calculus is that Vegas is very much a "novelty" kind of place and folks are much more likely to give it a shot when there.

The front-to-back symmetry is interesting. It may cause some confusion for other drivers, in some limited circumstances, when they can't tell which way the vehicle is facing.

It appears, based on my study of the footage on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIRW8bfy4kE, that it could possibly switch which side is the front and the back by just changing the color of the lights. With RGB LEDs that would be pretty easy to do. But my question is, when would that be useful?

It would be neat that it could pull into a driveway and then leave in "reverse", but that doesn't seem like it'd come up that often for a robotaxi.

The back wheels look like they can steer. That's useful for parking in tight spaces.

I have a good sense of what Waymo and Tesla’s capabilities are, but not Zoox. Can anyone here clue me in on how Zoox compares?

These little front-back symmetric buses (as well as engineering-outfitted minivans) are pretty common in the mission in SF as well. I see them all the time in a very small (four or so blocks around 16th and folsom where my pottery studio is) area, but I think they're all still just test driving.

As a waymo user, I'm looking forward to a little more competition in the market. I quite like waymo, but driving price down woudl be great.

The most useful thing I expect from robotaxis is speed regulations.

What's considered normal for humans, driving higher than the speed limits, will not for automatic cars.

I poked around on their site and read the press releases; Zoox seems to be limited to only pickups and dropoffs at a few set locations.

> Simply open the Zoox app to take a ride from several destinations on and around the Strip.

This puts it dramatically behind Waymo where I can walk out on any block in the coverage area and tell it to take me to any other block in the coverage area, not to mention Uber and Lyft.

I'm sure Zoox can improve this, but right now it resembles a self-driving shuttle more than a taxi service.

I like these futuristic little carriages. They're certainly useful in some scenarios but I hope to see something similar but obviouly bigger for public trasnportation.

“From immersive shows and world-class dining to major sporting events and luxury shopping, there is something special for everyone.” – an interesting way to describe Las Vegas.

Just about a year and a half too late for https://longbets.org/712/

Although from the article, it sounds like this might not be servicing a wide enough area to win the bet even if the time was extended a couple years.

I was just there last weekend and saw them everywhere. My buddy asked about it and I'd never heard of the company before. They're definitely distinctive.

Seems like robotaxis are getting ready for a big expansion, I see Waymos all over Orlando even though they don't offer service here.

Congrats to the team! It's no small feat to launch to the public in this space, and from the amount of testing I've seen Zoox doing it certainly seems like they've put in the work. Best of luck!

Those would be useful in Tesla's tunnel system.

I now see their development vehicles all over the valley, whereas previously if I was near the Strip that's the only region I would see them in.

This valley has congestion issues pretty much all day everywhere, plus a traffic light management protocol that results in very long light cycles.

Many of us when coming to a red light where there are multiple lanes and traffic is light, will make a point to not stop in the right lane when there is no right turn only lane. This is so people who are making a right turn can make a right on red instead of waiting for a green.

Zoox does not do this.

Sometimes there is not quite enough space between vehicles to get into a lane while cars are stopped at a light, such as getting into a left turn lane. Often, some light taps on the horn (or even just sitting with the turn signal) will result in drivers pushing up tight to let you into the left turn lane.

Zoox does not do this.

Zoox will change lanes many times for no apparent reason, making drivers think it is turning right or left at the next intersection, but it does not turn.

As best I can tell, Zoox has issues with pedestrians. I think that the operator (in the test vehicle) takes over when pedestrians are present, because so far I always see them operating the steering wheel when there are pedestrians.

As a driver, I don't like any of the automated drivers because I feel there is a thing that can do serious damage and nobody is accountable. These are all owned by corporations whose sole accountability will be financial, nothing more, while drivers are held to both financial a punitive accountability.

Further, these are all mega-conglomerates for whom there is no real regard for the destruction their property causes. They are politically connected, so will never lose their operating license. The are funded by the largest investors mankind has ever known. Nobody in these organizations has any respect for morals or ethics, instead fostering a system that promotes psychopaths.

I don't want them here. I haven't spoken to anyone who lives here that wants them here.

I feel like robotaxis are just electric bikes and scooters of 2025. I very well could be wrong (I think I am) but that's the vibes I'm getting from the robotaxis industry right now.

Curious, what happens to those car accident attorneys if/when these become ready for the wild.

What's interesting is that about 80% Tesla's entire valuation is FSD and Optimus, and the underlying assumption with FSD is that it'll magically turn on for all Tesla's in a day and they'll have a monopoly and extract all the profit needed for that valuation. Apart from any comparisons with Waymo, I suspect self-driving will broadly follow other AI tech, where we'll see a proliferation of competitive self-driving tech on the heels of first movers. Local protectionism will also probably play a big role in this.

the solution for self-driving cars is obviously for everyone to move to a gridded city in the desert

This being Vegas, they should make it possible to bet that you'll

- get lost

- be late

- collide with a moving car

- collide with stationary object

- run over a pedestrian (bonus for multiple!)

We are getting so close to the Total Recall taxi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yueCu8z7l4g

Where is a comprehensive test demonstration and rating by an insurance and federal agency?

Utterly disturbing announcements and rollouts like this aren't prominently linked with comprehensive testing videos.

"We're a tech company, just trust us"

The only thing I like about this is the potential to make Tesla look bad.

do these things self-clean? a free private shuttle service along the strip sounds like a bunch of private vomit-pods on wheels.

It’s a cute gimmick for tourists but it won’t contribute to public transportation.

Hopefully some genius will figure out a way of joining lots of these together into a 'gigapod'. That might have enough capacity to actually work at city scale.

How do we know this isn’t just an autonomous vehicle wrapper company?

This whole robotaxi thing is so stupid.