Amazon's Zoox Robotaxi First Ride!

[00:00:00]What is going on everybody? Chris here, and today we're going to be taking a ride in a pretty cool autonomous vehicle, the Zoox. Now, that one right there is not ours. Ours is still coming.

[00:00:07]It's 13 minutes away, but this is a totally autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals, no safety driver, and it doesn't even really have a front or back. The thing can just go forwards or backwards. It's a mirrored square rectangle, so you can sit anywhere you want. There is no front, there is no back. There's just seating for lots of passengers. And so, ours is coming. Now, I want to tell you about getting it, the app experience and stuff. Now, number one, the coolest thing, it is totally free. We are here in Las Vegas, which is where you can get a Zoox. There it goes. Nobody is in it right now. We're here here in Las Vegas.

[00:00:40]Going to be checking out the Boring Company. So, make sure you hit like and get subscribed so you don't miss that video. But, you download the app, you sign up. Took me like maybe 1 minute. It was super easy, and the rides are 100% free. Now, wait times are not very good, probably because it's free, and I don't think there's a whole ton of these things driving around.

[00:00:56]Most of the time it said that there were none available, but I just left the app open. It maybe took 5 minutes or so, and it let me pick one. Now, you have to be in really specific pickup location for it to pick you up. So, we have to be right here. We can't be anywhere else on the street near here. This is the pickup spot. If I want to get picked up at the Bellagio, which is where we are right now, I have to be right here, and it's going to pull up right there. On top of that, we're going over to the Venetian, another big famous hotel thing. I don't know that much about Las Vegas.

[00:01:22]But, the Zoox can't actually take you there. So, what it does when you put that as your destination is it drops you off as close as possible, and then gives you walking directions over to where you're going to go. So, right now it's over 100° in Las Vegas. The highs for the next few days are 110°. It is actually really hot and ridiculous. I've not experienced this type of weather quite quite this hot, and it's been pretty crazy. But, we're going to get dropped off and have to walk 11 or 12 minutes, which is fine.

[00:01:47]We can handle it. No big deal. But, that is the experience as of now. No complaints at all. It's a free service.

[00:01:52]They're just starting to scale up and build out and everything. Anyone can use it. You can just download the app, and that is really cool. But, I'm excited to try out a fully autonomous, built-to-be autonomous vehicle. Now, the Zoox is so cool because it forces us to think differently about what a car even needs to be. For our entire lives, cars have pretty much been the same in just a few different shapes, but of course, you have to have a steering wheel, you have to have pedals, and you have to face the front, but not anymore. It's a huge change from what we've been used to every single day. Now, all of these huge changes can feel a little overwhelming, especially when we feel like our sense of control is being taken away. I mean, there is nothing you can do in this vehicle to take over even if you want to. But, today's sponsor, BetterHelp, is a perfect fit here. I know it can be really easy to get caught in the loop of comparing what you have to what's coming next. I know I do it all the time, whether it's cars, work, money, family, or just life in general. Sometimes your brain grabs onto one thing and turns it into stress you just carry around all day. Therapy can be a helpful way to help you notice those patterns, understand why they keep showing up, and build better tools for dealing with them. BetterHelp makes starting therapy easier. You take a quick quiz, get matched with a licensed therapist, and you can communicate in the way that feels most comfortable for you, phone, video, or text. And if the therapist isn't a right fit, you can switch anytime at no extra cost. So, if you're feeling a bit disappointed about our lack of hardware in our personally owned vehicles, use the link in the description below or go to betterhelp.com/dirtytesla to get 10% off your first month. And thank you so much to BetterHelp for sponsoring this video.

[00:03:18]>> Wait, there's another one. Which one is ours?

[00:03:22]That's ours.

[00:03:22]>> There's a bunch.

[00:03:24]>> Uh-oh.

[00:03:25]I think this one's ours. Remember we had the purple theme?

[00:03:29]Ready for you.

[00:03:30]>> 750 >> I think it's this one. There's They're everywhere. I don't know which one it is.

[00:03:34]>> Well, it's 750.

[00:03:36]>> this is it. Okay.

[00:03:37]>> Why are you going around this way?

[00:03:39]>> Cuz you can get in either way.

[00:03:40]>> Oh, okay.

[00:03:41]>> says use other side. Never mind.

[00:03:43]>> Okay. So, this is the Waymo. We set that purple theme. You can set that in the app. But, the Zoox. I called it a Waymo.

[00:03:50]>> To open the doors, use the Zoox app.

[00:03:54]>> Oh, to open the doors, use the Zoox app.

[00:03:56]Open doors.

[00:03:58]>> This one is ours. Yay.

[00:03:59]>> Yep.

[00:04:01]Wow, that is futuristic, that's for sure. Just don't step back into traffic.

[00:04:06]All right.

[00:04:08]Hit my shoulder getting in.

[00:04:10]>> Yep, requested by two seats. Close doors.

[00:04:13]>> Yeah, so we can use this touchscreen down here to close it. We're not in a hurry.

[00:04:17]>> Sorry, I I thought you said That's all right. Sorry.

[00:04:20]>> So, that's the screen. Stephanie touched on her side. There's four. There's one next to each seat, so this is how you can interact with it.

[00:04:26]>> seatbelt.

[00:04:26]>> Now, it's asking us to fasten our seatbelt, and the air is on. Nice. So, we can fasten >> mood you set?

[00:04:32]>> Yeah, so this is >> should sit next to each other.

[00:04:35]>> Uh we can, yeah.

[00:04:36]>> So, that we can >> Well, I kind of want Yeah, I wanted to be riding backwards because that's going to be the weird feeling.

[00:04:41]>> We can't start the ride until everyone fastens their seatbelts.

[00:04:45]>> Okay, I did it.

[00:04:47]So, >> Start your ride by using the touchscreen.

[00:04:49]>> All right. You want to do the honors?

[00:04:51]You already kind of did that.

[00:04:52]>> Yeah, but is it okay now?

[00:04:53]>> Yeah.

[00:04:55]There we go. So, we're starting the ride.

[00:04:57]There are Here, let me turn this camera on and show you some stuff.

[00:05:00]>> We hope you enjoy your ride.

[00:05:02]>> Ooh.

[00:05:03]>> you can use the help menu on the touchscreen.

[00:05:06]>> So, down here, these are wireless phone chargers. You can't really see them.

[00:05:10]>> Want me to put my flashlight on?

[00:05:11]>> Sure. Yeah, put your flashlight on.

[00:05:13]Cupholders right here, which is nice.

[00:05:16]Wireless phone chargers down here.

[00:05:18]That's convenient.

[00:05:19]>> you don't forget it, though.

[00:05:20]>> Yeah, maybe it'll probably remind you.

[00:05:22]We should test that. You have USB-C right here, so you can plug in. Two USB-Cs on each side.

[00:05:28]There's some nice little music.

[00:05:30]Now, we do have headrests back here, which like is more for, you know, safety, so you don't get whiplash.

[00:05:37]But, we're we're riding backwards.

[00:05:41]It kind of feels like um it feels oddly natural.

[00:05:46]>> Yeah.

[00:05:46]>> And it feels like a carnival ride or something.

[00:05:49]Like I feel like I'm at Disney World.

[00:05:53]>> They're everywhere.

[00:05:54]>> Yeah, we're racing the other Zoox over here. Oh, and that one's now waiting for us. Oh.

[00:06:00]>> [laughter] >> This is cool. You can change your music.

[00:06:02]You can >> Okay. Yeah, you should probably turn that off so we don't get a copyright.

[00:06:05]>> Oh.

[00:06:06]>> Um here, why don't you show the people what you're doing over there?

[00:06:10]>> This just There's a screen at every seat, so you can see when you're going to arrive, you can adjust your music, and your climate.

[00:06:20]>> Oh, wow.

[00:06:21]>> So right now it's in the middle.

[00:06:24]But you can make it colder, or you can put the heat on, which we're definitely not doing.

[00:06:28]>> No, we want colder.

[00:06:31]>> So >> And then you have your personal fan up there. What does that do?

[00:06:35]So that's just for you alone.

[00:06:38]Auto, mini, or stronger.

[00:06:41]I'm going to adjust mine over here.

[00:06:42]Climate.

[00:06:43]>> That must be it's like up here. Yeah, it's up it's up top.

[00:06:47]>> So here are the fans up top here.

[00:06:49]There's a light, which we can click that if we want to do some light reading on our 9-minute drive.

[00:06:54]>> [laughter] >> Um and then this these are the fans right here. I can feel the air coming out of there. And then the coldness that Stephanie said is on this side of the cabin. So if we were with other people right now, you don't ride with strangers. Like it's just the people that are with you. But if people on the other side wanted a different climate, they can set that, and then the fan is per person, so that's actually pretty nice.

[00:07:13]Um I would say it's really quiet in here.

[00:07:15]>> It is.

[00:07:16]>> The seat is comfortable enough.

[00:07:18]>> Yeah, that I I feel like they're easy to clean, which is important for a taxi.

[00:07:24]>> Yeah, for sure. I mean these are definitely made to be cleaned. Um and it it's very clean in here.

[00:07:29]>> even like the floor, everything is really like smooth and just easy. Yeah.

[00:07:35]>> Yeah, it it smells fine. Like it doesn't smell bad, you know? Like that's just stuff you worry about when you have especially free public transport. This service has basically been booked all day. So, it's been busy. People have been in it. It is 2:41, so we still got a lot of time left in the day. Nobody's had time to yak in here yet or anything, but Um it's pretty good. So, there's a camera in the middle here. Let me show you that. So, there's this camera right here, which of course can see the entire cabin.

[00:08:01]>> can see the Eiffel Tower, too.

[00:08:03]>> The Eiffel What? Oh, well.

[00:08:06]Vegas is a weird place. And uh I'm sure that's for rider support or whatever. I don't see anything here. There's a help button. Let me click help. So, I clicked the help button. I can click emergency pull over or call Zoox support.

[00:08:18]So, that's cool. Exit out of that. That was up there at the top right, the little help button. And then again, here's our climate settings. Personal fan. I cranked all that up cuz it's so hot.

[00:08:27]Music. So, this is like built-in music. Zoox cast, connect to your music.

[00:08:32]So, that's nice. You have personalization options. I think robo-taxi from Tesla kind of has that down the bass cuz you're literally logged into your account, which auto syncs all of your, you know, YouTube music and all of that.

[00:08:43]So, different genres and stuff. That's nice. We'll go back home. We have 6 minutes left, 2:49 arrival. And we're going 28 mph. We can see the speed, so that's pretty interesting. All right, so how do you feel right now about we're driving backwards?

[00:08:57]>> Oddly fine. Like this is really smooth and I love just like the customization of it.

[00:09:04]>> Yeah.

[00:09:05]>> Um it you don't get that in an Uber or a Lyft, you know? Like whatever they have on the radio, whatever temperature they've set the car to, unless you ask them to do something about it.

[00:09:16]Um it's quiet, it's private.

[00:09:20]>> Yeah, it's really nice. I do got to say the smoothness is really good.

[00:09:23]>> It's really >> I was worried about a Waymo-like experience cuz Waymo, I mean, every time we've used them, we had a video with Stephanie a few years ago now where she was saying, "Yeah, it's pretty smooth."

[00:09:31]And then it just like jammed on the brakes. It's so funny.

[00:09:33]Um and I and just Waymo in general is not nearly as smooth as what you get in Tesla FSD.

[00:09:40]But it's you know, it's driverless, it's safe and all that.

[00:09:43]Tesla FSD is supervised in our cars, but it's a lot smoother. This I thought was going to be more like the Waymo lack of smoothness and you know, it's just a a few minutes so far, but it feels really good.

[00:09:52]>> Yeah.

[00:09:52]>> It's very quiet. Whatever they did with the tires, the suspension, the road noise, the insulation is really good.

[00:09:58]>> It is.

[00:09:58]>> I love the doors. I love how they opened.

[00:10:01]>> cool.

[00:10:01]>> They're huge, they're wide. I did kind of bump I'm not that tall, but I did bump myself on this when I was getting in, you know, for what that's worth.

[00:10:09]What were you going to say?

[00:10:09]>> I was just going to say I wonder how long they can go before they need to charge.

[00:10:15]Cuz if they're just going up and down the strip here, at least in Vegas, it's they could probably last a long time.

[00:10:22]>> Yeah, it's going to be all day and you know, part of that limited you know, area where they go, they only do certain pick up and drop off drop off spots.

[00:10:29]They're only in a very small part of Vegas. I mean, I don't I think they'd go all day and just charge at the end of the shift and and that's one of the funny things is, you know, when you look at electric vehicles, you're so concerned about range and charging and all this stuff, but in an autonomous electric vehicle that you don't own, none of that matters at all.

[00:10:46]And we have no way to know what the battery's at.

[00:10:49]We can't check even if we want to cuz it do- it doesn't matter in this car. It's just kind of a funny way to shift your your thinking. Um so it does have cameras all over. I'll I'll put up the specs of the sensors. I don't know them off the top of my head. It does use lidar. There's another one over there.

[00:11:01]Let's see.

[00:11:03]So if you can see that one, nope, never mind.

[00:11:07]I'll just put up a picture. I was trying to show the one that's over there. Um but it definitely has lidar all over the place, all four corners. I love that the front and back looks the same. It's just like if I turn this around, you can tell and it's not anything too crazy, but this is reimagined as an autonomous vehicle. You don't need to be everyone be facing the same direction.

[00:11:27]You can be in here all four people in your party. You could be talking, chatting.

[00:11:31]>> I love it. I love that.

[00:11:33]>> Yeah, I would wish we had two friends with us.

[00:11:34]>> That would like it the whole setup is so cool. And what is also cool is I mean there were so many of these pulling up while we were waiting.

[00:11:41]>> That was funny.

[00:11:42]>> All of the different age groups. Like there was kids getting in them. There was like families with young kids and you could see when they got out they were all like like excited about it. And then there were like elderly people coming out of them. It's cool to see them try I mean, you know, trying out the autonomous vehicles and >> That's very true. There were a ton of different people. Now I've noticed this twice. Two times a car has kind of quickly come towards this vehicle and it has not freaked out about it. It's not like we were going to get in an accident, but again, I'm used to that with Tesla and with with the Waymos I've been in. If a car is quickly coming towards you, fair enough, you kind of freak out a little bit, maybe hit the brakes or or accelerate to get out of the way.

[00:12:23]Uh oh, 2 minutes left. That's our 2-minute warning. Um this has handled it so smoothly. Like maybe someone would have run into us actually and it wouldn't avoid it.

[00:12:32]That's [laughter] why it's so smooth, but that obviously hasn't happened. So I I mean I don't think that's the case at all. I'm like wickedly impressed by this. I I love it. I was a little worried about the sitting backwards part. I don't get motion sick, but you do.

[00:12:43]>> Yeah, no, I feel fine.

[00:12:44]>> And when it first took off, it did feel very weird.

[00:12:46]>> It felt weird at first.

[00:12:47]>> Um but I adapted to it in just a couple of minutes.

[00:12:50]>> And the rest of the traffic seems to just be like used to them in driving with them, you know? Cuz like I remember there was discussion about should people know if a Tesla is using FSD? And we were like, well, no, because what if people try to mess with it then because they know it's well, I mean, people I mean, people seem pretty respectful of these here, but they're probably used to them.

[00:13:17]Right. But also you don't want to like I don't know.

[00:13:22]>> Draw attention if you don't have to.

[00:13:23]>> Yeah.

[00:13:24]>> Yeah, and it's just a Cybertruck.

[00:13:26][clears throat] It's just a >> No, I'm Well, I'm saying though like it just even though it's such an odd-looking vehicle and it's clearly autonomous.

[00:13:33]>> Yeah.

[00:13:35]>> Like the rest of the cars are just like >> Hold on.

[00:13:38]>> chilling with it.

[00:13:39]What?

[00:13:40]>> Look at this abomination. Who puts those door handles on the car? Don't do that. But no, I agree with you. It's uh people will definitely mess with things that are different or new, but I think it kind of proves the point that it's just a very short-term problem.

[00:13:55]I'm like, "Oh, look at this new different thing." And people pick on it and then if they do and then they get used to it and nobody cares anymore. So, that's kind of what we're seeing here um in that it seems to be fitting in.

[00:14:05]So, here is our view out of this side.

[00:14:06]Obviously, this is behind us, so we wouldn't be looking out here, but it kind of gives you an idea of what we can see facing forward out the other side.

[00:14:12]It's not very good. We can't see that great out of the front or the back, but the sides are wide open. So, if I turn and show you the side here, it's just a huge glass opening. You can very easily see. And I'm wondering if that helps. A lot of motion sickness has to do with how you perceive the movement and feel the movement compared to what you're actually seeing. So, I wonder if they put any thought into mitigating that with you know, the way your peripheral view sees everything around you because you know, people sit in the front seat, if they're driving the car, they probably won't feel motion sickness. If they're sitting in the front seat, not very likely to experience motion sickness unless they're looking at their phone or reading or something. Back seat, much worse, right?

[00:14:54]In general.

[00:14:55]>> Oh, yeah. For me, back seat is like I'm guaranteed going to get >> Well, there you go. And so, this maybe they put thought into the way you're kind of you know, have access to what you're seeing. That felt a little weird, right?

[00:15:06]>> Yeah, it feels weird in parking lots.

[00:15:08]It's very like assertive.

[00:15:10]>> Yeah. Okay.

[00:15:11]>> Cuz it's it says it's trying to find a place to stop, it seems like.

[00:15:14]>> Finding the best place to stop. Yeah, it definitely wiggled kind of strange, but all right, let's see the >> Oh, no, no, we're not there yet.

[00:15:19]>> Oh, I I take my seatbelt off and see what it says. See if it freaks out.

[00:15:24]Fasten seatbelt. Finding the best place to stop. Okay, well, that's a good reaction.

[00:15:29]That's a great reaction. No freak out, no slamming the brakes, just like, "Hey, hold on a second, buddy."

[00:15:35]And we're at this fancy place.

[00:15:39]And Oh, victory.

[00:15:42]>> Please watch your head.

[00:15:43]>> We're here at your drop-off point.

[00:15:44]>> as you leave.

[00:15:45]>> Oh, yeah, check for the >> Don't forget your things.

[00:15:47]>> Don't forget your things. Oh, I meant to put my phone here. Hold on. Let me put my phone down.

[00:15:54]Okay, my phone is charging on the charging pad. That's right, you don't have to show.

[00:15:59]All right, phone's charging on the charging pad. Open doors.

[00:16:04]>> I have to go out this way.

[00:16:05]>> one opened.

[00:16:06]And it's going to let me leave my phone.

[00:16:07]To be fair, >> the doors after you exit.

[00:16:11]>> Okay, we'll close the doors after you exit. My seatbelt tightened itself as I got up.

[00:16:15]>> Oh, jeez, that was loud.

[00:16:17]>> trapped me in there.

[00:16:18]>> All right, do you have to push the button?

[00:16:20]>> No, it said, "We will close the doors for you."

[00:16:22]>> Okay.

[00:16:22]>> So, it's waving. It says, "See you next time." Now, it did not warn me of my phone, but to be fair, I put my phone on the charger after it parked. I really meant to do that. Maybe we'll take another one, but this thing is so cool. I love it. I think this is such a great thing. And then there's the noise again.

[00:16:38]I look at the app.

[00:16:40]We've arrived.

[00:16:42]No big deal.

[00:16:46]And it's probably just going to drive away. So, look at these tires. These things are huge.

[00:16:51]And then, these are all the lidars up here. One, two, three cameras.

[00:16:57]It's probably not going to take off with me standing there.

[00:17:00]Let's watch it uh drive away.

[00:17:02]So, it could go either direction. It doesn't matter. Forwards or backwards is the same thing to this vehicle, which is such a smart design. It's actually the same in our Teslas, even though their shapes to be pointing in certain direction for humans, to the car it doesn't really matter if you're going forwards or backwards. Very cool, super exciting experience for me. Did you like it?

[00:17:19]>> I loved it.

[00:17:19]>> Nothing negative for me.

[00:17:21]>> Well, yeah, nothing negative for me. I would pick it over Uber, Lyft, >> Yeah.

[00:17:26]>> Waymo anytime.

[00:17:27]>> So, I'd pick probably Robo-Taxi cuz I'm biased. Although, Zoox Zoox may be a little bit over Robo-Taxi. It was a really good experience. Wait times are eh, but it's free.

[00:17:36]Waymo is below both of those by far, way below. And then, you get into Uber and Lyft, way below the Waymo.

[00:17:43]>> It's cool that we're at the point where we're comparing various autonomous vehicles.

[00:17:47]>> Sorry, humans.

[00:17:49]Autonomous vehicles are winning.