The next step on our journey to public roads

First-of-its-kind self-certification

Our mission is to reinvent transportation - making the future safer, cleaner, and more enjoyable for everyone. Achieving this goal requires more than retrofitting traditional cars with autonomous technology. It means developing an entirely new type of vehicle optimized for riders, not drivers. 

Today, Zoox has reached a critical milestone in our journey to launch our robotaxi on public roads: becoming the first company to self-certify a purpose-built, fully autonomous, all-electric passenger vehicle to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). The FMVSS are the federal vehicle safety performance requirements needed to operate on public roads.

Building from the ground up

The Zoox robotaxi was built from the ground up for riders and does not rely on traditional driving controls such as a steering wheel or gas and brake pedals. So how does Zoox meet the FMVSS requirements prescribed for traditional vehicles without relying on this historical equipment?

From the beginning, we challenged ourselves to create a vehicle that would be compliant with FMVSS requirements within the current regulatory structure. We intended to self-certify our purpose-built vehicle without the need for regulatory changes or requesting exemptions. By building from the ground up, we were able to incorporate not only FMVSS performance requirements, but also more than 100 new safety innovations not available in traditional passenger cars, into our vehicle.

In order to self-certify the Zoox robotaxi, a team of safety professionals with hundreds of years of collective experience developed and completed a series of physical tests, computer simulations, engineering analyses, and technical milestones to demonstrate that our vehicle meets – and where possible, exceeds – the criteria set forth by the FMVSS. 

“Self-certification of a purpose-built vehicle that does not rely on traditional human driver controls is a historic milestone in the autonomous vehicle industry,” said Dr. Mark Rosekind, Chief Safety Innovation Officer. “Safety is foundational to everything we do at Zoox, and this achievement is a testament to this mindset.”

What comes next

We are making incredible progress towards realizing our mission and are excited to have completed this historic milestone. While self-certification is a critical step to launching a public service, it does not mean you will be able to hail a Zoox just yet. We’re looking forward to our next step of obtaining a permit to operate our purpose-built vehicles on public roads in CA.

We will be sharing additional details about our future service soon. Be the first to hear about the latest updates from Zoox by signing up for our newsletter below.