Zoox just landed its most strategic partnership yet. The Amazon-owned robotaxi company is licensing routing software from The Routing Company, founded by former UberPool executive James Cox, while bringing five of the startup's engineers in-house to scale its fledgling autonomous fleet operations.
Zoox is making its boldest scaling bet yet, and it's coming from an unexpected source. The Amazon-owned robotaxi company announced Wednesday it's licensing routing technology from The Routing Company, the startup founded by James Cox after he left his role leading Uber's struggling UberPool service in 2019.
The deal represents a fascinating full-circle moment for Cox, who watched Uber abandon autonomous vehicles entirely while he believed the company was sitting on goldmine technology. "Taking the core of UberPool's tech and applying it to robotaxis" was the missed opportunity that drove Cox to launch his own venture, according to TechCrunch's exclusive interview.
For five years, The Routing Company has been quietly proving Cox's thesis with transit agencies, arranging 3 million trips across 13 U.S. states and five countries. But Zoox represents the startup's first robotaxi client – and potentially its biggest validation.
The partnership goes deeper than a simple licensing deal. Zoox is bringing five of The Routing Company's engineers directly into its operations to "advance the efficiency and scalability" of its autonomous fleet. Cox himself will serve as senior advisor to Mike White, Zoox's chief product officer, while remaining CEO of his startup. Any new technology those embedded engineers develop will stay with Amazon's robotaxi division.
The timing couldn't be more critical for Zoox. The company is preparing to launch its early-rider program in San Francisco and offer paid public rides in Las Vegas later this year. Unlike Waymo's approach of retrofitting existing vehicles, Zoox built purpose-designed autonomous vehicles from scratch – but that ambitious hardware bet means nothing without the software to route them efficiently.
