AIBRIEF
Amazon's driverless unit opens paid rides to Harry Reid, where Uber and Lyft riders are still pointed to a parking garage walk — a curbside gap made possible by an August federal exemption.
A Las Vegas flyer stepping off a plane Thursday can walk a few steps from baggage claim and slide into an Amazon-built, steering-wheel-free robotaxi for the ride to the Strip. Uber and Lyft riders from the same terminals are pointed to the upper deck of a nearby parking garage, a five- to ten-minute walk away.
Zoox, Amazon's Silicon Valley autonomous-vehicle unit, extended its paid robotaxi service to Harry Reid International Airport on Thursday. The pickup, at baggage claim in both terminals, is the curbside slot Uber and Lyft don't have at Harry Reid.
The August NHTSA temporary exemption made paid commercial service possible. The two-year waiver covers up to 2,500 Zoox vehicles across eight federal motor-vehicle safety standards, including windshield defrosting and light-vehicle braking. Zoox started charging for rides on August 10.
Three more robotaxi operators are preparing to follow. Tesla, Uber, and Waymo each received Nevada Transportation Authority permits last month to operate in Clark County; Uber plans to run with Zoox and with Hyundai's Motional. Aggregate cap across the new permits: up to 8,000 robotaxis deployable over the next twelve months.