Zoox Las Vegas robotaxi: What’s it like to ride in a vehicle without a driver?
Zoox’s Las Vegas robotaxi launch is underway, and if you’ve traveled anywhere near the resort corridor lately, odds are that you’ve seen at least one of the four-wheeled pods in the area.
The company is in the early stages of rolling out its commercial robotaxi ride-hailing service, offering free rides for now to and from Resorts World, Topgolf, New York-New York, Luxor and Area 15.
How it works
The experience, like any ride hailing service, begins on your phone. Rides can be ordered via the Zoox app on iPhone and Android devices. The app allows riders to track their approaching Zoox, and it can reroute a closer vehicle if it drops off a passenger or becomes available.
The app alerts riders once their pod arrives, and riders can match the license plate of the vehicle with the one displayed on the app to make sure it’s the right one. Some stops, including Resorts World and Area 15, have Zoox kiosks with staffers who can assist.
Once the vehicle is safely parked and the ride accepted, riders press a button to open the pod’s sliding glass doors.
Each pod can seat four passengers. Riders must fasten their seat belt and press “start ride” before the autonomous vehicle will begin its journey. The seats are arranged living room style, with two sets of riders facing each other. With no steering wheel or pedals and nothing is the middle of the vehicle, there is ample leg room for all passengers.
The ride itself is smooth, unlike many other autonomous vehicles the Road Warrior has been in over the years. There were no jerky movements, and the vehicle sped up and slowed down with ease.
Safety aspects
The Zoox pod keeps pace with traffic, maneuvers around other cars when needed, yields to pedestrians and cyclists and obeys all traffic laws, a feat made possible by an array of cameras and senors placed around the vehicle and years of data collection during road tests.
In a ride last week, Zoox co-founder Jesse Levinson noted that a pod is programmed to proceed through a light that has just turned yellow but stop if the light has been yellow for too long to avoid running red lights. Coincidentally enough, as Levinson said that, a pickup blew through the red light on the Las Vegas Strip that the Zoox vehicle had stopped for just two seconds earlier.
Each rider can control the music and temperature inside the pod and track their progress toward their destination via a touch screen. Multiple USB-C ports and charging pads are available for those in need of a quick device power ups.
Other motorists take a second look when they drive past the pod, and pedestrians and hotel patrons waiting for taxis and ride shares are quick to take out their phones and snap a pic or take video.
Routes
During a ride from Resorts World to Topgolf’s location behind MGM Grand, the Zoox vehicle took Las Vegas Boulevard to Harmon Avenue, passing by the Formula One Grand Prix Plaza, and proceeded south down Koval Lane to Topgolf, stopping in front of its ride share pick up/drop off area.
After the initial ride, another Zoox was ordered to get a ride back to Resorts World.
This time, the Zoox took a non-Strip route, exiting Topgolf onto Koval southbound, going through Tropicana Avenue and passing by the south side of the Athletics ballpark site to the Las Vegas Boulevard intersection. There the Zoox headed west on Reno Avenue across the Strip, taking a back way through the Luxor parking lot to Frank Sinatra Drive before heading north on Frank Sinatra to where it branches off to Sammy Davis Jr. Drive until it reached the street to the Resorts World porte-cochere.
On a different set of rides between Resorts World and New York-New York, the Zoox took Sammy Davis Jr. to Frank Sinatra, exiting on Arena Drive, at T-Mobile Arena, where it proceeded to the porte-cochere of New York New York. The Zoox took that same route back to Resorts World on the return trip.
Overall impressions
In all, the rides were smooth and free of incidents. The vehicle traveled at posted speed limits and obeyed stop signs and traffic signals. Even after the novelty of being in such a unique vehicle wore off, the rides were enjoyable, making you forget there was no human driver at the helm of the ride.
If you are looking for a portion of the ride to travel on the Strip, the Topgolf trip from Resorts World is the way to go.
With dozens of vehicles out on the road for the five-location launch, the supply should be able to keep up with demand. The average wait time for the four rides the Road Warrior took was approximately 15 minutes.
The service will be a fun, convenient way to get from location to location once more destinations are added in coming months, but passengers can already get from the north end of the Strip to the south end with the current service, which already provides some usefulness.
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X. Send questions and comments to roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com.
