Zoox has opened its waitlist for self-driving ride-share services in San Francisco, which do indeed come with a little extra sweet treat.
Waymo’s monopoly on self-driving rideshares is coming to an end … just not right now. After years of test driving and months of speculation, Zoox, which has been the subject of joke fodder about the Amazon-owned company’s toaster-oven-looking cars, has opened up a waitlist for rideshare opportunities in the company’s home city.
“Zoox has been testing our autonomous technology in San Francisco since 2017,” said Zoox’s CEO, Aicha Evan, in a blog post announcing the company’s looming operations in SF. “It’s our home. A city of innovation and progress, with an amazing mobility ecosystem that we feel Zoox can really complement. We have seen incredible interest in Zoox in this market and are excited about this first step to bring our purpose-built robotaxi experience to more people.”
Zoox shared Monday it has opened an app-sepcief waitlist to try the point-to-point service in certain San Francisco neighborhoods; the only serviceable zipcodes presently will be in SoMa, Mission District, and Design District neighborhoods before expanding its operation zones elsewhere in San Francisco; these initial service rides are free to those who secure spots on the waitlist and build on Zoox’s public robotaxi implementation outside of the Las Vegas strip where the company’s currently offering rides up and down the strip.
Not only is Zoox leveraging competition by waiving fees, the company, which is presently valued at $3.2 billion, is also (strategically) aligning itself with small businesses favor … and complimentary goodies.
Among Zoox’s first rides are reserved for Tartine employees, who can use the app to book point-to-point service rides to and from work; Tartine represents Zoox’s first local business partner, and, per the company’s announcement, will help pave the way for future partnersihso — “We look forward to partnering with more businesses to connect our riders with more Bay Area favorites that make our community special.”
Re: those goodies, those who register a ride through Zoox’s dedicated app will receive a free tartine pastry and coffee. For the frugal among us, it’s a sweet deal; Tartine’s artisanal pastries are famously pricey, though absolutely worth it, usually cost around $5 each, and coffee is trending toward the SF average of about $4 a cup — an almost $10 breakfast comped with a free driverless ride.
Zoox’s San Francisco waitlist opening comes days after Waymo expanded service down the Bay Area peninsula, with the driverless cars now approved to use freeways across San Francisco; some Los Angeles and Phoenix zipcodes now also utilize approved freeways, as well.
Whether or not Zoox can nudge ahead of Waymo’s years-longer headstart in the Bay Area remains to be determined. But one thing is for sure: Hanging inside a glorified toaster oven with a pastry in one hand and a coffee in the other beats out riding shotgun in a Jaguar iPace any day of the week.
Feature image: Courtesy of Zoox
