Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company, Zoox, has opened its first robotaxi serial production facility.

Once fully operational, the facility can assemble over 10,000 robotaxis annually.

The 220,000-square-foot site is located in California, US, expected to create hundreds of jobs.

The facility will assemble autonomous vehicles and support future design updates.

It will also aid Zoox’s expansion into commercial services in cities like Las Vegas and San Francisco, with plans for Austin and Miami in the future.

It will conduct engineering, software and hardware integration, assembly, and end-of-line testing.

The production process combines human labor and robotics, with robots handling tasks like adhesive application and vehicle transport.

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🔗 Source: Zoox

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Purpose-built robotaxis represent a significant shift from early autonomous vehicle approaches

Zoox’s manufacturing strategy marks a departure from the historical development of autonomous vehicles, which initially focused on retrofitting existing cars with self-driving technology.

The current wave of purpose-built vehicles without steering wheels follows decades of experimentation dating back to the 1980s when Carnegie Mellon University developed Terregator, one of the first practical autonomous vehicles 1.

The DARPA Grand Challenges in the early 2000s catalyzed major advancements, shifting focus from infrastructure-dependent systems to vehicles capable of navigating independently 2.

Zoox’s production facility represents the culmination of this evolution, moving from experimental prototypes to mass-produced vehicles specifically designed for autonomous operation rather than human control.

This purpose-built approach contrasts with competitors like Waymo that modify existing vehicles, allowing Zoox to optimize designs specifically for urban mobility and passenger comfort rather than compromising with traditional vehicle architecture 3.

2️⃣ The robotaxi manufacturing race reflects different bets on commercialization strategies

Zoox’s 220,000-square-foot facility with capacity for 10,000 vehicles annually highlights a significant bet on vertical integration and scale economics in the competitive robotaxi landscape.

This manufacturing approach differs markedly from market leader Waymo, which completed over 4 million paid rides in 2024 using retrofitted vehicles across multiple cities 4.

The production strategy reveals competing visions: Zoox’s focus on purpose-built vehicles optimized for bidirectional travel and passenger experience versus others prioritizing faster deployment using modified conventional vehicles 3.

Zoox’s emphasis on U.S. manufacturing and supply chain resilience represents a long-term strategy, betting that purpose-built vehicles will ultimately deliver superior economics despite higher initial investment 5.

This manufacturing approach faces significant commercial challenges, as previous robotaxi ventures have struggled with the economics of autonomous operations—Cruise notably suspended operations after safety incidents despite substantial backing from General Motors 6.

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