When James Cox, the former leader of Uber’s ride-share product Uber Pool, left the company in 2019, the Silicon Valley giant had already abandoned its autonomous vehicle development and sold off the division. Although Uber Pool had struggled to gain traction, Cox believed a massive opportunity was missed: taking the core technology from Uber Pool and applying it to robotaxis.
For the last five years, Cox has been running a small startup named The Routing Company, which helps transit agencies match riders with vehicles quickly and affordably. In that time, his company has arranged 3 million trips across 13 U.S. states and five countries. Now, The Routing Company has secured its first robotaxi client: Zoox.
The Routing Company announced a new deal with the Amazon-owned robotaxi company this Wednesday. As part of the agreement, Zoox will purchase a nonexclusive license for the startup’s technology and bring five of its engineers onboard to advance the efficiency and scalability of its fledgling robotaxi service. Cox will transition into a senior adviser role to Zoox’s chief product officer, Mike White, but will remain as CEO of The Routing Company.
Any new technology developed by these engineers during their time at Zoox will remain with the Amazon-owned company. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
This partnership is a recent example of how robotaxi companies are increasingly seeking external help as they deploy real-world fleets. Waymo has recently announced a series of operational partnerships with companies like Uber and Avis. Last year, delivery startup Nuro outsourced its simulation work to Toyota-backed Foretellix in an effort to reduce research and development costs.
Cox expressed hope that this deal will scale the positive impacts of his company’s technology during what he anticipates will be very fast expansion in the robotaxi space. In a statement, Zoox also said it believes the new team members will help it scale. The company plans to bring its early-rider program to San Francisco and offer paid public rides in Las Vegas later this year.
Cox reflected that the work his company has done with transit agencies has been some of the most rewarding and challenging of his career. However, he is excited to start working with robotaxi companies because of the speed at which they can operate. He believes the speed of getting the technology and its benefits to more people will potentially be faster on the autonomous vehicle side.
Cox thinks advanced route optimization software is essential for building a large-scale robotaxi network. He describes it as a critically important yet often overlooked component of both the autonomous vehicle and ride-sharing systems. Getting it right is also extremely difficult. He compares the challenge to playing chess in four dimensions on a melting board where the pieces move themselves, there is a cost to moving every piece, and all of it must be calculated in real time. Any system that fails to account for all that chaos in real time will always struggle.