Stars on the ceiling, Cher on the speakers: Notes from our first ride in Amazon’s Zoox robotaxi

LAS VEGAS — Our toaster has arrived.

Amazon’s Zoox robotaxi service launched in Las Vegas this fall, and a few members of the hard-working GeekWire Studios crew joined me to try it out for a ride to dinner after a long day at AWS re:Invent. Zoox was nothing short of a hit with our group.

The consensus: it was a smooth, futuristic shuttle ride that felt safe amid the Las Vegas chaos, with per-seat climate control, and customizable music. (Somehow we landed on Cher, but in this vehicle, we felt no need to turn back time.) Most of all, the face-to-face seating made for a fun group experience, rather than a retrofitted car like Waymo. 

Zoox, founded in 2014, was acquired by Amazon in 2020 for just over $1 billion, marking the tech giant’s move into autonomous vehicle technology and urban mobility. Zoox operates as an independent subsidiary, based in Foster City, Calif.​​

Unlike competitors that retrofit vehicles, Zoox designed its robotaxi from scratch. It’s a compact, 12-foot-long electric pod, bidirectional, without steering wheel or pedals.

The experience of calling the Zoox vehicle on the app was seamless and quick. The doors opened via a button in the app after the carriage arrived to pick us up at a designated station between Fashion Show Mall and Trump International Hotel. 

Inside, our nighttime ride featured a starfield display on the interior ceiling of the cab, adding to the magical feel, with functional seats comfortable enough for a drive across the city.

A few of us had experienced Waymo in California, so it was natural to make the comparison. One thing I missed was the live virtual road view that Waymo provides, representing surrounding vehicles and roadways, which provides some reassurance.

Emergency human assistance also seemed more accessible in the Waymo vehicles than in the Zoox carriage. And unlike the Waymo Jaguar cars that I’ve taken in San Francisco, the build quality of the Zoox vehicle felt more utilitarian than luxury.

For this current phase of the Vegas rollout, one major downside is the limited service area — just seven fixed spots along the Las Vegas strip, like Resorts World, Luxor, and AREA15, requiring walks between hubs rather than seamless point-to-point hails. It’s more of a novelty for that reason, rather than a reliable form of transportation.

But hey, the rides are free for now, so it’s hard to complain.

And the ability to sit across from each other more than made up for any minor quibbles. (Our group of five split up and took two four-person carriages from Fashion Show Mall to Resorts World.) Compared to the Waymo experience, the Zoox vehicle feels less like sitting in a car and more like sharing a moving living room.

GeekWire Studios host Steph Stricklen was initially skeptical — wondering if Vegas would be the right place for an autonomous vehicle, given the chaotic backdrop and unpredictable traffic patterns on the Strip. But she walked away a believer, giving the ride a “10 out of 10” and saying she never felt unsafe as a passenger. 

“It felt very Disneyland,” said GeekWire Studios host Brian Westbrook, citing the creature comforts such as climate control that seemed to be isolated to each seat. Along with music and other controls, that’s one of the features that can be accessed via small touch-screen displays for each passenger on the interior panel of the vehicle.

GeekWire project manager Jessica Reeves said she almost forgot that there wasn’t a human driving. Despite rapid acceleration at times, the ride was smooth.

“It didn’t feel like I was riding in an autonomous vehicle, maybe it was just the buzz of experiencing this new way of transportation,” Jessica messaged me afterward, reflecting on the experience. “The spaciousness, facing my friends, exploring the different features, it all happened so fast that before I knew it, we were there!”

Holly Grambihler, GeekWire’s chief sales and marketing officer, was impressed with the clean interior and comfortable seats.

“It felt less like a vehicle and more like a mobile karaoke studio with the customized climate control and ability to choose your music — Cher in Vegas, perfect!” Holly said. “It felt safe with our short ride. I don’t think I’d take a Zoox on a freeway yet.”

On that point: Zoox’s purpose-built pod is engineered to reach highway speeds of up to about 75 mph, and the company has tested it at those velocities on closed tracks. In Las Vegas, though, the robotaxis currently stick to surface streets at lower speeds, and Zoox hasn’t yet started mixing into freeway traffic.

The Vegas service launch marked Zoox’s first public robotaxi deployment, offering free rides along a fixed loop on and around the Strip while gathering data for paid trips. Zoox followed with a limited public launch in San Francisco in November.

For Amazon, the technology represents a long-term bet, with the potential to contribute to its logistics operations. It’s not hard to imagine similar vehicles shuttling packages in the future. But for now the focus is on public ridership.

The company has flagged Austin, Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Seattle as longer-term potential markets for the robotaxi service as regulations and technology mature. We’ve contacted Zoox for the latest update on its plans.

If our own ride this week was any indication, the company’s biggest challenge may simply be expanding the robotaxi service fast enough for more people to try it.

Editor’s note: GeekWire Studios is the content production arm of GeekWire, creating sponsored videos, podcasts, and other paid projects for a variety of companies and organizations, separate from GeekWire’s independent news coverage. GeekWire Studios had a booth at re:Invent, recording segments with Amazon partners in partnership with AWS. Learn more about GeekWire Studios.