Amazon-owned autonomous taxi company Zoox has opened a new production facility in Hayward, which is already employing around 100 technicians, and the City of Hayward is quite happy to welcome them.
Zoox, if you haven’t heard, is building the first “purpose-built robotaxis,” meaning that instead of passenger vehicles with steering wheels and driver’s seats that are retrofitted, like Waymo’s autonomous Jaguar taxis, these are vehicles with only passenger seats and no steering wheel, meant only to be taxis.
These funny-looking — some may say cute — robo-vans began testing on San Francisco’s streets last fall, but confined only to the SoMa neighborhood. And now as they prepare to grow the business, Zoox is building more of these things in Hayward, with plans to roll out passenger service in SF and Vegas later this year…