Back in November at the LA auto show, zoox made a big splash with their announcement of plans to develop a fully autonomous, level 4 vehicle(1).The imagery was spectacular and many of the concepts were revolutionary. However, people questioned whether it was “visionary or vaporous“. We caught up with zoox CEO Tim Kentley-Klay about the work that they’ve been doing, including, how they got started, what they do now, and where they’re headed.
Getting its name from a type of plankton that live on the tentacles of polyps, zoox is rooted in the idea of symbiosis. The zoox plankton and the polyps share a symbiotic relationship: zoox provide oxygen to the polyps so they can grow, and the polyps provide a place for the zoox plankton to live. Tim expressed how this is the same type of relationship that should exist between man and machine: man and machine must work together to create efficiencies. Driverless transportation is a way to make the world a more efficient and mobile place. Tim is focused on the idea of mobotics: robotics specialized in the art of mobility.
Since the inception of the company, Tim’s concept hasn’t been to make money or compete with other companies, but to make life more fun and livable. He expressed that he felt that there was a lack of vision in the industry, with technology limited to ground-up thinking, and car manufacturers trying to solve the problem from an engineering perspective. At zoox, their goal is to change the way we view the technology we have, and to introduce new technology to revolutionize the driving experience. Tim believes that zoox are in the right place at the right time, and understand the benefits autonomy can deliver.
At the moment, zoox is focused on furthering their vision. The team is currently a group of three, but they hope to expand. The team is looking for partners, doing a lot of traveling searching for others who share their dream, and looking for artists to work on concept designing and prototyping. Tim told us that they will update the website in this quarter to reveal a new team. They are overwhelmed by the amount of interest they have received from people who are interested in joining, such that they can hardly get to all of the emails between the three of them! They have been able to speak to many organizations within the industry, including Google, MIT, Freie University in Berlin, Mercedes, and many others including many of the participants from the DARPA challenges.
It’s important to understand, however, that zoox is not an automaker. They’re looking at things differently than the automobile companies. They’re a group that’s trying to come up with a new paradigm for transportation, and that’s where the idea of mobotics comes in. If you’re looking at this venture as providing a new type of automobile, Tim says, then you’re missing the point. What zoox wants to do is view the transportation service industry in a new way, and that’s how we can really change the world.
If you’re interested in the work that zoox does, visit their website at http://zoox.co/. You can also hear Tim speak Friday, April 11, at the Autonomous Vehicle conference in Santa Clara, California.
(1) The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) defines a Level 4 as a full self-driving automation: the vehicle is designed to perform all safety-critical driving functions and monitor roadway conditions for an entire trip. Such a design anticipates that the driver will provide destination or navigation input, but is not expected to be available for control at any time during the trip.
