Zoox can now charge for rides in a car with no steering wheel, and that has never been allowed in the US before
The US regulator has given Amazon's Zoox the first commercial exemption for a purpose-built autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals. Paid rides start in Las Vegas.
Anyone who has seen a robotaxi in the wild has seen the same thing: an ordinary car with a steering wheel turning itself, like a scene from a horror film. Zoox never wanted that. It built a pod with no steering wheel, no pedals and no driver’s seat — then spent years waiting for American law to let it put the thing to work properly.
What exactly did the US regulator approve?
On 30 July, NHTSA granted Amazon-owned Zoox a commercial exemption allowing it to charge money for rides. It is the first time in US history that has happened for an autonomous vehicle designed from scratch without human controls.
The exemption covers eight federal motor vehicle safety standards — things like windshield defrosting and light vehicle braking requirements — all written back when every vehicle was assumed to have a person behind the wheel. It is not that Zoox is held to a lower bar; it is that the bar was calibrated for a different kind of vehicle.
How many vehicles, and where?
Up to 2,500 a year across a two-year window, under an oversight framework the agency says will evolve as the technology does. The first paid rides are expected in Las Vegas, still in August.
Las Vegas is not a random pick. It has a regular grid, dry weather almost all year, and an enormous flow of people making short hops between hotels and casinos. If there is one place in America where a car with no steering wheel has an easy life, it is there.
Why should anyone in Portugal care?
Because it marks the difference between piloting and selling. Until now the American race has mostly run on adapted conventional cars — Tesla put robotaxis on Miami streets with no safety monitor on board, but those are still cars with steering wheels. Zoox is testing something else: if a regulator will accept a vehicle never meant for a human to drive, urban car design stops being tied to the dashboard.
Europe’s route is slower and runs through type approval rather than case-by-case exemptions, so nobody should expect these pods in Lisbon soon. But the precedent counts, and the terms of the authorisation are published by NHTSA.
By Oliver Grant
Image: 9yz / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
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