Here’s How Amazon-Owned Zoox Is Expanding Its Operations

• Driverless shuttle startup Zoox is letting its vehicles drive at slightly higher speeds in Las Vegas and Foster City, while also operating at night.

• The Amazon-owned startup plans to offer driverless shuttles of its design, rather than modified EVs like most other autonomous vehicle companies.

• The robotaxi industry has seen a number of rapid surges over the past two years, as well as some significant setbacks, while still remaining far from profitable operations.

Autonomous tech developer Zoox is steadily expanding its operations in Las Vegas as well as Foster City, California, after launching its driverless shuttle on a limited, geofenced basis in 2023.

Designed for speeds up to 75 mph, so far the shuttles have only been going about half that fast along a couple of short routes around the company's neighborhoods in the two cities.

Now, Zoox is letting its shuttles reach 45 mph while also expanding its geofence to five miles in Las Vegas, running from the company's office to the south end of the Strip, while also letting its shuttle drive in night conditions and during light rain.

"Driving autonomously at a higher speed increases difficulty in all conditions," Zoox noted. "We've set rigorous internal safety targets, and we did not begin driving these routes until we were able to quantify that we have met and consistently exceeded those targets."

Despite a few major setbacks late last year, the robotaxi industry appears to be inching toward a wider rollout, though it's still confined to the few states and cities where autonomous-vehicle development has been welcomed by state and local governments.

Those AV-friendly states are still limited in number, so for now we're not talking about paying customers and fleets of hundreds of these driverless shuttles.