Zoox Las Vegas robotaxis: What’s behing the stalling incidents seen on social media?

If you drive around the resort corridor, it’s tough to miss the Amazon-owned Zoox robotaxis driving around, joining the small army of self-driving vehicles making trips between popular tourist destinations.

It’s even tougher to miss the bi-directional vehicles when they pop up on social media posts stalled out in the middle of Las Vegas Valley intersections, including the world-famous Las Vegas Strip.

Stalling incidents

In April, Instagram user @Joebubanlv posted a video showing four Zoox robotaxis stalled on Hacienda Avenue near Sorrel Street taking up most of the two eastbound travel lanes. The video shows Metro officers on the scene, with traffic forced to navigate around the cluster of stationary self-driving vehicles. Metro did not respond to a request regarding the incident.

Then in June, a video showing a Zoox robotaxi stalled at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Valley View was posted by popular social media account Las Vegas Locally. Cars are shown navigating around the idled vehicle while turning left from Valley View onto Flamingo headed east toward Interstate 15 and the Strip.

“We can confirm that both instances were the result of external third-party interactions with the vehicles and were not caused by Zoox,” Zoox spokeswoman Marisa Wiggam said in an email. “Both were isolated situations rather than part of a broader trend.”

In January, Zoox temporarily suspended its robotaxi service for software upgrades, the Nevada Transportation Authority said at the time.

When asked last week if there was a record of the two stalling incidents this year, NTA spokeswoman Teri Williams said the authority does not require Zoox to submit reports for stalled vehicles, only those that involve crashes.

“The NTA has not received any reports (of crashes),” Williams added in an email.

The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles also does not keep a database on self-driving-related road incidents, according to department spokeswoman Hailey Foster.

Minor crashes

In June, a Zoox robotaxi was also involved in a minor crash on Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue, requiring the self-driving vehicle to be towed, as seen on a livestream from a Regional Transportation Authority traffic camera.

Metro said that the case was closed by dispatch after they could not contact either party involved in the crash.

Last week, a Review-Journal photographer was waiting for a Zoox they had hailed at the MGM Grand when it was backed into by a vehicle driven by a driver who had been double parked in the ride hail area of the resort.

The Zoox that had been hit waited until it was clear to pull to the curb. When the photographer tried to get in, a human voice came over the speaker and said to wait, as the vehicle was just in a crash and employees had to remotely ensure it was still safe to be on the road.

After a brief wait, the Zoox employee came back on the speaker and said they needed to get the robotaxi off the road and instructed the RJ employee to order a new ride, apologizing for the incident.

Daily operations

For the more than 350,000 rides Zoox has provided in Las Vegas, the handful of incidents involving the company’s robotaxis amount to a small number of the overall miles traveled by the robotaxis.

Zoox has been offering its service free of charge since September, mainly around the resort corridor, transporting passengers between two set destinations. The pickup and drop-off locations recently expanded, with riders now able to hail rides at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Sphere, T-Mobile Arena and the majority of resorts on the Las Vegas Strip.

Zoox also began data collection routes to and from Harry Reid International Airport this year, in anticipation for future passenger rides.

Paid rides pending

Zoox is awaiting a decision by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to legally start charging customers for its robotaxi rides. The NHTSA issued the first demonstration exemption to Zoox in August, allowing them to offer the free rides in Las Vegas.

As of this month, after a public comment period in March, the NHTSA has yet to decide on Zoox’s request, according to an agency spokeswoman.

The two-year exemption is needed because Zoox’s purpose-built vehicles lack standard vehicle features including steering wheels and brake and gas pedals. If approved, Zoox would be allowed to deploy up to 2,500 vehicles per year for paid robotaxi service in Las Vegas and other cities.

Zoox robotaxis are four-seater pods, with two seats on each side facing each other. The purpose-built vehicles can move forward and backward at speeds up to 75 mph. Passengers are able to charge their phones inside the vehicles and control the temperature and music from touch screens within the robotaxi.

The NHTSA proposed last month that the U.S. government stop requiring manual brakes in self-driving vehicles, which if approved, would make it easier for driverless vehicles like Zoox’s robotaxis to be operated on roads.

Zoox has been operating in Southern Nevada since 2019, based out of a 190,000-square-foot headquarters located in the southwest valley.