[Music] You've never seen a ride like this. There's no steering wheel, pedals, driver's seat, there isn't even a driver. This is a robo-taxi from a company called Zoox, which is looking to reimagine the way that we get around, along with developing

self-driving tech. They've also designed what it calls purpose-built robo-taxis. I'm here in Vegas to get a behind-the-scenes look at how Zoox took this from concept sketches to reality, and of course, to hitch a ride myself. So let's check it

out. Self-driving cars have long been a sci-fi staple, but they're also becoming a very real-world transportation option in a growing number of cities. In the San Francisco Bay Area, I can hail a Waymo if I want to get to my destination sans driver. Waymo, which is owned by Google's

parent company Alphabet, also operates in places like Phoenix and Los Angeles. But Zoox is taking things one step further with the anticipated public rollout of its robo-taxi. Zoox, which is owned by Amazon, not only wants to get you to your destination without a human driver, but

it wants to do it in these futuristic-looking vehicles designed for up to four riders. No steering wheel or driver's seat here. Two people can sit on each side. The robo-taxi is all-electric and has a symmetrical design. It can drive in both directions, so it'll never have to

reverse out of a parking spot. You'll call your ride with an app like you would with Uber or Lyft. Zoox's plans to open its driverless fleet to the public in the coming months, starting with Las Vegas, which is why I'm here to take a

Test ride, use the touch screen to close the doors. Let's close the doors. Starting. Ride 3, 2, 1. Gearing up to go. We got a 15-minute arrival time and we're on the move. Okay, now we get to go into the wilds, aka the streets of Las

Vegas. Yes, Zuk does plan to have its REO taxis cruising this trip once they're available to the public. The demo route I took was a short distance from the strip, but I still got to see how the vehicle handles multi-lane roads, construction

and traffic signals and how I felt being in a vehicle with no driver's seat. It feels like there's somebody in the driver's seat is making sure to look both ways and then push the gas pedal. There's no gas pedal and there's no driver, so it's a little weird, pretty

cool though. Building a reimagined self-driving vehicle also means the folks at Zuk's had to ensure riders can easily do everything from adjusting the AC to contacting emergency services. See, I have this control here where I can play with the temperature or play music

or look at the map to see where we're going. Um, I can also push 'pull over' if there's any issues. There's also an emergency button at the top which I can push and then be in contact with customer service, which will then figure out what emergency I need to be

connected with. There's also wireless charging and a USB-C port between the seats in case your phone's running out of juice. The fastest the Zuk's robo-taxi went in Vegas was 45 mph, in accordance with the speed limits of the roads we

drove on but it can technically go up to 75 mph which is helpful for when these vehicles eventually hit the highways I think the thing about this is how like unremarkable it feels and I I don't mean that as an insult but it just feels

like we're just taking a ride it's being very cautious of what's happening around it and I can really just sit back I haven't gotten car sick which is really great it's a big deal for me Duke says hailing a robo-taxi over a standard ride

share or public transportation can offer greater privacy and relaxation when you simply put yourself in a room or a lounge that now is moving down the road like our robo-taxi has designed I think you start to realize very quickly what freedoms you do have and one of those is

you know simply to be able to relax to let go again nothing's demanding your attention by design if you want to just get in and sleep we've got you right for your entire ride if you want to be on a very critical call there's no one

that's going to be listening in on that conversation if you want to play your music as loud as you possibly want to or listen to whatever you'd like to listen to but absolutely you can do that as well while riding in a vehicle of the future can be exciting some communities

and drivers are still apprehensive about the rollout of self-driving cars on public roads one of the biggest concerns of course is safety can a machine really be as cognizant as a human driver General Motors owned Cruise for instance was suspended indefinitely

in California last year after one of its driverless cars hit a jaywalking pedestrian while Mo's vehicles have also been involved in a handful of high-profile collisions including one with a biker in San Francisco and another with a towed pickup truck in

Phoenix the company recalled and updated its software to address the issue and in May the national highway traffic safety administration launched investigations into both Waymo and Zoox for incidents in which company vehicles behaved erratically that includes Waymo colliding with parked vehicles and

sudden breaking on Zoox's test fleet according to the NHTSA Cruise, Waymo and Zoox have all published reports touting the safety of their respective vehicles and technologies they've also all pointed to data on the dangers of human driver error Elon Musk who unveiled a

prototype of Tesla's long awaited Robo taxi in October has also said quote I think we'll see autonomous cars become 10 times safer than a human these companies all appear to be firm in their belief that driverless tech and AI could actually curb deaths and injuries on the

road by ensuring vehicles are doing exactly what they need to do without distraction but it may take some time and brighter experience to get the wider public to share in those beliefs I actually witnessed how Zoox's responds to obstacles on the road at one point we

suddenly came to a full stop and I soon realized why oh this is what's happening there's a car way ahead that just like did a U-turn in the middle of the road and I think it freaked the car out thanks for waiting we're resolving an

issue oh okay we were moving again within a few seconds but that moment demonstrates the cautionary approach Zoox wants its Robo taxis to always take when there are any incidents or issues on the road getting to this level of autonomous driving has been a decade in the making

for Zoox it all started in 2014 with the company's founding across many iterations and sketches the company landed on what it calls a carriage style vehicle with the seats all facing each other in a symmetrical design in 2020 Amazon Acquired Zoox and the company

introduced its Robo taxi to the public Zoox has self-certified its Robo taxi to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety standards which is required to operate on public roads in 2023 the California DMV granted Zoox a driverless testing permit to

operate its Robo taxis autonomously on open public roads Zoox is currently testing its self-driving fleet around its headquarters in Foster City California but only with employees at least for now the Nevada DMV also authorized Zoox to operate its Robo taxis on public roads there hence its

presence in Vegas while speaking at a tech crunch disrupt panel in late October Zoox's co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson announced the company would be deploying its Robo taxis in San Francisco's Soma neighborhood as well as the Las Vegas Strip in the coming weeks

but Vegas will still be the first to launch commercially Zoox relies on its test fleet of retrofitted Toyota Highlanders to map areas for its self-driving vehicles and UR software is ready for autonomous riders we needed a bit of space and and enough power to put all of

the Advanced Hardware in there um and we also were looking for a vehicle where we could get the sensor positions as close as possible um to where they are um on on the ground of vehicle Z's currently operates its test fleet of Highlanders in Foster City, San Francisco, Las Vegas,

Seattle, Miami and Austin. These test vehicles aren't for public riders, just the human operators making sure everything's running smoothly. The retrofitted Highlanders feature the same sensor hardware as the robo taxis so that all the data they collect can be

directly transferred to that final rider-only iteration. That hardware includes lidar, radar and cameras to allow the vehicles to navigate roads without a driver. Zuk builds its robo taxis and retrofits its test fleet at a 150,000 sq ft manufacturing facility in Fremont,

California. It plans to expand the factory and add additional manufacturing facilities in the near future. Robo taxi assembly all starts with a carbon fiber body that's produced in Europe and shipped to Zuk's manufacturing facility. From there, workers install wire harnesses, electronic control units,

batteries and the suspension system and then add the sensors and cameras to the outside. The finishing touches are then made to the vehicle's interior. Testing takes place throughout the manufacturing process to ensure everything's working as needed. Controlling everything from design to manufacturing to operations

makes it easier to quickly adjust vehicles based on rider feedback or technological developments. This new technology with AI and robot taxis as a on-demand service, it's going to be uh moving very quickly. We're getting a lot of feedback that's new for people. We're

going to get new riders and new expectations and so I think being able to provide continual improvement it's going to be really key to stay on top of those expectations Back in Vegas I also held a ride with Justin Wendeszuk as

director of Fleet operations to learn more about the company's biggest considerations for ensuring rider safety and comfort during our ride The robo taxi seamlessly handled taking a right turn at a red light once the coast was clear and perhaps most impressively knew what to do in a construction zone

if you look here you'll see we're we're coming up to a really really tight construction zone right here where one lane is completely blocked and when we just merged right over navigated right around it without any issues that was very smooth that's a real test right

there because it had the arrow where you had to kind of know that you needed to go to the left and and it did it and then we just merged right back over and then we're merging into another right-hand turn lane so just pretty pretty

smooth very cool It's of course critical for a robo taxi to know what to do when it encounters any roadblocks or unexpected situations especially in a big city like Las Vegas even if this is still the outskirts for now at least it's still a lot of lanes you need to

navigate a lot of stop lights a lot of traffic coming from different directions there's just different things that happen that the vehicle needs to be ready to deal with and and it handles it splendidly which is fantastic You talk about airbags because I look around here

and there's a lot of glass obviously so what do those airbags look like to make sure that you know somebody feels safe because yeah like there could be you know hopefully not but if there was any side impact from other vehicles how do you kind of keep everyone safe inside

safety's foundational at Zoox and we have a really robust airbag system it's called a horseshoe airbag it comes down and inflates from the from the top and it completely encapsulates you but to make sure that you're safe the seat belt

will pre-tension and put you in an upright position to make sure that you're in an optimal spot to make sure that that airbag deploys in a way that's going to put you in a safe spot thankfully despite all the glass

surrounding me in the robo taxi there wasn't cause to worry about safety I felt pretty secure and we didn't encounter any major issues on our drive I think I'm just like taking in how ordinary this feels I wish I was

screaming instead I think that would make a better video but I'm not so what's next for Zoox first they'll launch commercially in the coming months here in Vegas and then eventually in San Francisco in the meantime they'll continue to do testing

in Austin Miami and Seattle and then we'll see what the road ahead looks like so what do you think would you be willing to ride in one of these Robo taxis yourself let us know in the comments and be sure to give this video

a thumbs up and thank you so much for watching

I Rode in a Zoox Robotaxi With No Driver, Steering Wheel or Pedals. Is This the Future?

CNET is the premier destination for explaining and navigating the changing world around us. Through news, product reviews, price comparisons, and more, we’ll tell you what’s new in the parts of modern life that increasingly matter more — from health, home, and money to tech, culture, and climate — and how to get the most out of them.

CNET

Introduction to Zoox's robo-taxi and its features

Description of the driverless robo-taxi and its unique design.

Journey from concept to reality and a test ride experience.

Comparison with other self-driving services like Waymo.

Zoox's ambition to provide driverless transportation in futuristic vehicles.

Details about the vehicle's all-electric design and symmetrical features.

Test ride experience and vehicle features

Initiating the test ride and using the touchscreen interface.

Driving experience on Las Vegas streets, handling various road conditions.

Sensations and feelings of riding in a driverless vehicle.

Rider controls for AC, music, map, and emergency services.

Speed capabilities and overall ride experience.

Advantages over traditional rideshares and public transport, focusing on privacy and relaxation.

Freedoms offered by the robo-taxi environment, such as relaxing or making calls.

Safety concerns and incidents involving autonomous vehicles

Public apprehension about the safety of self-driving cars.

Incidents involving Waymo and Cruise autonomous vehicles.

Safety reports published by autonomous vehicle companies and Elon Musk's perspective.

A specific incident during the test ride showcasing the vehicle's response to obstacles.

Development and testing of Zoox's robo-taxi

Zoox's journey from founding to the current stage of development.

Amazon's acquisition of Zoox and public introduction of the robo-taxi.

Certifications and permits obtained for autonomous operation.

Testing locations and plans for deployment in San Francisco and Las Vegas.

Use of retrofitted Toyota Highlanders for mapping and data collection.

Manufacturing facility and process, from body production to final assembly.

Importance of controlling the entire process for quick adjustments.

Importance of continuous improvement based on rider feedback.

Seamless handling of various road conditions, including construction zones.

Discussion about the airbag system design for safety.

Concluding thoughts on the test ride experience and future plans for Zoox.