Zoox launches first robotaxi facility ahead of Las Vegas debut
HAYWARD, California: In a significant step toward its commercial debut, Amazon-owned Zoox has unveiled its first factory dedicated to building robotaxis, setting the stage for a direct showdown with Waymo and Tesla in the autonomous vehicle space.
The facility in Hayward, California, was announced this week. It spans 220,000 square feet and is designed to produce over 10,000 units annually at full capacity. While initial production goals weren't shared, Zoox said the expansion aligns with growing demand ahead of its launch plans.
The company is already testing over 20 vehicles in several U.S. cities. It aims to roll out commercial rides in Las Vegas this year, followed by a broader rollout in San Francisco. It currently operates in the SoMa district and expects to begin onboarding public riders soon.
"This expansion, plus the anticipated demand once rides open up to the general public, and additional market entrances in the coming years, warrants this increase in robotaxi production," Zoox said in a statement.
Unlike rivals, Zoox operates purpose-built autonomous vehicles without steering wheels or pedals — boxy shuttles that stand out from traditional cars retrofitted with sensors. Tesla plans to launch its robotaxi service on June 22, starting with Model Y vehicles and later a two-seater "Cybercab." Waymo, meanwhile, has years of experience with driverless fleets and is expanding nationally.
Despite growing momentum, robotaxi developers face continued scrutiny over safety and regulation, with federal investigations and recalls following various crashes involving autonomous vehicles.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Calgary Herald
an hour ago
- Calgary Herald
Tasha Kheiriddin: Carney will have no choice but to kill supply management
Article content For a while there, things were going so well. Prime Minister Mark Carney — aka 'the Trump whisperer' — had morphed from critic to texting buddy of the U.S. President. Over the past three months, Carney had been chatting with Donald Trump, building backchannel goodwill. After the successful G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alta., hopes were high that Ottawa would strike a deal with Washington in 30 days, and that the rhetoric of making us the '51st state' had finally been retired. Article content Article content Until last Friday, when everything fell apart. Article content Article content Article content That's when President Trump abruptly cut off trade negotiations with Canada over our three per cent digital services tax, set to take effect June 30. Aimed at U.S. tech giants Amazon, Meta, Google and AirBNB, the tax was retroactive to 2022 and would have cost them an estimated $2 billion in back payments. The tech bros howled, the president barked, and Carney blinked. Sunday night, he backed down and cancelled the tax: Monday morning, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick thanked him for the climbdown, as did the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Negotiations were back on. Article content But if you thought that was the last bump in the road, you couldn't be more wrong. In an interview broadcast Sunday morning on Fox, Trump mentioned a veritable mountain: supply management. That's the system that protects Canadian dairy, poultry and egg industries from foreign competition through quotas and tariffs, including Trump's favourite bugaboo, a 200-plus per cent markup on U.S. dairy products. Article content Article content It's true that the tariff only kicks in after the U.S. exports 50,000 zero-tariff metric tons of milk and 12,500 metric tons of cheese per year — levels it is nowhere near approaching. But supply management was already a sticking point with Trump in the CUSMA negotiations under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Republican lawmakers and U.S. dairy producers continue to demand its elimination. Article content Article content In our country, unfortunately, it has become a hill on which political careers go to die. Case in point: People's Party Leader Maxime Bernier, whose ambition to lead the Conservative party in 2017 was thwarted by the Quebec dairy lobby after he promised to ditch the policy. And the sacred cow lives on: in June, the House of Commons and Senate passed a Bloc Québécois bill with all-party support to prevent bargaining supply management away. Article content Carney knows that he owes his recent election victory in large part to Quebec voters — and with a minority, needs the support of opposition parties like the Bloc to stay in power. But if Canada wants a serious trade deal with a Trump White House, supply management will have to go. Not just for the sake of negotiations, but because it's a cartel policy that has had its day.
Canada Standard
2 hours ago
- Canada Standard
Canada scraps tax on tech giants in bid to revive US trade talks
US President Donald Trump had halted negotiations with Ottawa over what he called an "attack" on American companies Canada has shelved its plan to slap a digital services tax (DST) on tech companies in a bid to get trade talks with the US back on track, reversing course just as the measure was due to kick in. The 3% tax, passed into law last year by the government of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, was set to take effect on Monday and would have been applied retroactively to 2022-2024 profits. It would have primarily targeted US companies like Amazon, Google and Meta, costing them an estimated $3 billion. "Today's announcement will support a resumption of negotiations toward the July 21, 2025 timeline set out at this month's G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis," Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement on Sunday. "Canada's new government will always be guided by the overall contribution of any possible agreement to the best interests of Canadian workers and businesses," he added. Carney and Trump agreed to resume trade talks when they met earlier this month at the G7 summit, where the prime minister said they had agreed to finalizing a new economic agreement within 30 days. Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne wrote on X late on Sunday that dropping the levy would allow Ottawa "to make vital progress and reinforce our work to create jobs and build prosperity for all Canadians." On Friday, US President Donald Trump had denounced the tax hike as a "direct and blatant attack on our country" and threatened to terminate all trade negotiations that had been ongoing between the North American neighbors for months. He also vowed to impose new tariffs on Canadian goods within a week. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick welcomed the reversal, saying the tax "would have been a deal breaker for any trade deal with America." Tensions between the two countries have been mounting since February, when Trump imposed a 25% tariff on Canadian goods shortly after taking office. Ottawa responded with reciprocal duties, though Trump later suspended the measure, saying he was open to country-specific deals that benefit US businesses. Trump has long accused Canada of exploiting US trade and on several occasions suggested it should become America's 51st state. This fueled the ambitions of the country's Liberal Party and Carney's election campaign. Shortly before taking office as prime minister, he described Trump's tariffs as "unjustified" and stated that "Canada will win" the trade war with the US. On March 14, the day he was sworn in, he vowed that the country "will never, ever, in any way, shape, or form, be part of the United States." Canada is the US's second-largest trading partner after Mexico, and the top buyer of US exports. According to the US Census Bureau, it imported $349 billion in American goods last year and exported $412 billion to the US.
Canada News.Net
3 hours ago
- Canada News.Net
Canada scraps tax on tech giants in bid to revive US trade talks
US President Donald Trump had halted negotiations with Ottawa over what he called an "attack" on American companies Canada has shelved its plan to slap a digital services tax (DST) on tech companies in a bid to get trade talks with the US back on track, reversing course just as the measure was due to kick in. The 3% tax, passed into law last year by the government of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, was set to take effect on Monday and would have been applied retroactively to 2022-2024 profits. It would have primarily targeted US companies like Amazon, Google and Meta, costing them an estimated $3 billion. "Today's announcement will support a resumption of negotiations toward the July 21, 2025 timeline set out at this month's G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis," Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement on Sunday. "Canada's new government will always be guided by the overall contribution of any possible agreement to the best interests of Canadian workers and businesses," he added. Carney and Trump agreed to resume trade talks when they met earlier this month at the G7 summit, where the prime minister said they had agreed to finalizing a new economic agreement within 30 days. Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne wrote on X late on Sunday that dropping the levy would allow Ottawa "to make vital progress and reinforce our work to create jobs and build prosperity for all Canadians." On Friday, US President Donald Trump had denounced the tax hike as a "direct and blatant attack on our country" and threatened to terminate all trade negotiations that had been ongoing between the North American neighbors for months. He also vowed to impose new tariffs on Canadian goods within a week. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick welcomed the reversal, saying the tax "would have been a deal breaker for any trade deal with America." Tensions between the two countries have been mounting since February, when Trump imposed a 25% tariff on Canadian goods shortly after taking office. Ottawa responded with reciprocal duties, though Trump later suspended the measure, saying he was open to country-specific deals that benefit US businesses. Trump has long accused Canada of exploiting US trade and on several occasions suggested it should become America's 51st state. This fueled the ambitions of the country's Liberal Party and Carney's election campaign. Shortly before taking office as prime minister, he described Trump's tariffs as "unjustified" and stated that "Canada will win" the trade war with the US. On March 14, the day he was sworn in, he vowed that the country "will never, ever, in any way, shape, or form, be part of the United States." Canada is the US's second-largest trading partner after Mexico, and the top buyer of US exports. According to the US Census Bureau, it imported $349 billion in American goods last year and exported $412 billion to the US.
