GM Cruise Rival Zoox Now Operating Robotaxi On California Roads

Cruise, GM’s autonomous vehicle subsidiary, received a significant challenge on February 11th, 2023 when its competitor Zoox transported passengers on a public road using its autonomous robotaxi. Zoox’s robotaxi has no manual driving controls usable by humans, such as a steering wheel or brake pedals, and is controlled only by an onboard computer.

The Zoox robotaxi drives at a maximum speed of 35 mph and is capable of carrying up to four passengers. Zoox plans to continue operating its robotaxi on public roads after the successful first test, but only between its two office buildings in Foster City, California. The only passengers allowed in the vehicle for now are Zoox employees, meaning the robotaxi is functioning as an automated shuttle on a set route.

Zoox states in its press release that it tested the robotaxi rigorously on private roads before deploying it to public streets. It claims to have incorporated 100 unique safety features into the robotaxi design. Zoox further describes itself as an “Autonomous Mobility-as-a-Service” company and claims the milestone of being the first to deploy a publicly operational purpose-built robotaxi.

GM’s Cruise started providing free rides to the public with its autonomous vehicles (AVs) in January 2022, switching over to charging fares in June. It currently has approximately 300 AVs on the road compared to the single unit Zoox is operating, and recently added robotaxi service in Phoenix, Arizona and Austin, Texas in addition to the original San Francisco deployment.

Nevertheless, Zoox’s claim to be the first operator of a purpose-built robotaxi on public roads remains technically true. The AVs currently in use by Cruise are Chevy Bolt EVs, meaning they were not purpose-built as robotaxis, but were adapted from ordinary, human-driven passenger cars.

Cruise is also focused on market expansion while Zoox is still conducting what amounts to public road testing. The GM subsidiary plans to have thousands of AVs on the road providing robotaxi services by 2030, bringing in an estimated $50 billion in revenue annually.

GM’s Cruise is also developing its own purpose-built robotaxi, the Cruise Origin, a box-shaped vehicle which, like the Zoox robotaxi, will be fully autonomous with no controls for a human driver to use. A human-operated prototype of the Origin is currently being tested on San Francisco streets.

The path to deploying AV robotaxis has not been completely smooth, with the NHTSA launching a safety probe into Cruise AVs following reports of the autonomous vehicles obstructing traffic with frequent braking or unnecessary stops. Argo AI, another robotaxi competitor to GM’s cruise, went out of business in October 2022.

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