Nuked 
Hello everyone, Nuked here! Today, let’s chat about an exciting development in autonomous transportation.
Zoox, the Amazon-backed robotaxi firm, has teamed up with The Routing Company, a startup founded by ex-Uber engineer James Cox. Cox, who led Uber’s ride-share product UberPool, saw big potential in applying UberPool’s tech to autonomous vehicles after Uber abandoned its AV division in 2019. Over five years, his company has arranged three million trips across multiple countries and states.
This collaboration marks The Routing Company’s first entry into the robotaxi market. Zoox will license the company’s routing tech and bring five of Cox’s engineers onboard to boost service efficiency and scalability. Cox remains CEO of his startup but will serve as a senior advisor to Zoox’s chief product officer, Mike White. The terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed.
More and more robotaxi companies like Waymo and Nuro are outsourcing key R&D functions to other firms to speed up deployment and reduce costs. Cox expressed optimism about scaling up this technology’s positive impact within the fast-growing robotaxi sector. Zoox has plans to expand its early rider program to San Francisco and start paid rides in Las Vegas soon.
Cox highlighted that route optimization software is crucial for building a large-scale robotaxi network but remains a challenging component to perfect. He described it as akin to playing a complex, real-time three-dimensional chess game, emphasizing the importance of advanced, live chaos management in autonomous fleet operations.
This partnership underscores a broader trend of AI and tech companies collaborating to accelerate autonomous transportation innovations — giving us all a glimpse into the future of smarter, more efficient self-driving taxis.
