Zoox redesigned its robotaxis for more comfort and less stink

FastCompany: In the more than 2.5 million miles Zoox robotaxis have driven in San Francisco and Las Vegas since last September, the Amazon-owned driverless vehicle service has learned a lot about operating on chaotic city streets. The company has also learned a lot about the chaos people can bring inside their vehicles. “You’re not supposed to smoke in the vehicle. They smoke in the vehicle. And they’re smoking everything in the vehicle,” says Chris Stoffel, Zoox’s director of robot industrial design and studio engineering.

“Like, how do we interact with that?” [Photo: Zoox] Weed smoke is just one aspect of the unpredictable nature of the autonomous vehicle user, and it’s one of many that Zoox has internalized in the design of the new version of its robotaxi, rolling onto roads later this year. In an exclusive interview with Fast Company , Stoffel explains how the new version of Zoox’s robotaxi was designed to improve the comfort, and experience, and, yes, smell of riding in a robotaxi. “The great majority of our changes are rider-centric,” Stoffel says.

“It’s really about making that ride experience better from A to B, just continual improvement, more comfortable, more calm, easier to use, and a little bit more feature rich.” [Photo: Zoox] A new Zoox Zoox’s new robotaxi is an evolution of its initial design , which shocked the AV world when it was first revealed in late 2020 with its bi-directional driving, four facing seats, and complete lack of a steering wheel or driver seat. This new version retains the overall exterior look and form of that design, but with some important upgrades in the user interface, the safety features, and most extensively, in the interior.

The new version is expected to begin service in San Francisco and Las Vegas later this year, along with testing in Austin and Miami, where the company plans to expand. [Photo: Zoox] Stoffel says the seats have been reconfigured to be more spacious, with softer cushions, a slightly larger armrest, more practical cupholders and mobile device charging pads, and a headrest that’s both more comfortable and more transparent for passengers keeping an eye out the front (or back) windshield.

The goal was to make the rider experience better, whether for the short trips the company was founded in 2014 to tackle or the longer slogs that are the urban reality today. [Photo: Zoox] “When we initially developed the vehicle looking at on-demand rides, you’d see average rides are around 15 to 20 minutes. And so you’re not really designing for someone to be in there for an hour and a half. But what we found is rides take longer sometimes with traffic,” he says.

This rider focus was informed by the roughly 500,000 rides the company has operated in San Francisco and Las Vegas since September, and rider surveys conducted through the Zoox app after each ride. “We’re learning quickly from them. And we want to be able to stay up to pace with their feedback, with their wants and needs,” Stoffel says. [Photo: Zoox] The design team used this feedback to focus on the cabin experience, down to very small details.

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The redesign of Zoox's robotaxis represents a significant advancement in user experience for autonomous vehicles, making it highly relevant and impactful for brand strategy professionals focused on innovation and customer feedback.