Automotive News - December 21, 2020 - 9

DECEMBER 21, 2020 * 9

Aurora and Zoox differ on path to future
A solo effort, an
acquisition and the
Amazon connection
Pete Bigelow

pbigelow@crain.com

About a half-dozen driverless testing deployments. The unveiling of
perhaps the most thoughtful
self-driving vehicles produced to
date. A blockbuster acquisition.
No, the final stretch of 2020 has not
lacked for excitement.
In a year in which many wondered
whether the pandemic would slow
the pace of autonomous-driving developments, the opposite has happened, and the scramble of activity
has underscored the potential of robotaxis carrying passengers around
urban areas.
It also has brought into sharper focus the business models that companies are formulating to capture a
slice of what Zoox CEO Aicha Evans
calls a " multitrillion-dollar opportunity. "
Zoox may be the most ambitious in
its aspirations. From its inception six
years ago, the Bay Area startup embarked on a plan to handle the major
challenges involved in a ride-hailing
business all by itself: Develop its own
self-driving system. Create an allelectric, purpose-built vehicle from
scratch. Establish its own ride-hailing network.
Those efforts remain a work in
progress. But Zoox took a step forward last week with the public unveiling of its four-passenger shuttle
with a power supply that can last as

FRONT AND REAR SHOCK ABSORBERS
KYB

Aurora is working to develop a virtual driver that could control a range of
vehicles - from last-mile delivery vehicles to Class 8 trucks.

long as 16 hours and which has bidirectional driving capability. (See story on Page 8.)
In a business in which the word
" innovative " gets tossed around like
spare nickels, the Zoox vehicle truly
qualifies as such.
It's not hard to imagine the emerging commercial battlegrounds:
Someday Zoox will compete with the
six-seat Cruise Origin in the dense
confines of San Francisco and in Las
Vegas with the service that Motional
- the brand created by the Hyundai-Aptiv joint venture - is partnered
in with Lyft.
While Zoox has a long way to go in
cobbling together its own ride-hailing network, the arrival of its vehicle
has burnished the company's bona
fides and affirmed the go-it-alone
approach, Evans said.

" A couple of our competitors said,
'They're just smoking something, I
don't know what, over there,' " she
said. " They said, 'They can't build a
vehicle' or 'It's not going to be autonomous.' There was a lot of 'can't,
can't, can't.' ... They called it 'vaporware horseshit.' We took it in stride.
Our first vehicle, we were code-naming VH1, and then 2, 3. We're now on
No. 6. This is a mission-driven, dedicated, resilient company. "
Given that Amazon acquired Zoox
this year for $1.2 billion, it's natural
to wonder whether Zoox's autonomous-driving technology and cityminded vehicle could deliver packages.
Not far-fetched, Evans says, but the
company is squarely focused on carrying passengers now.
Aurora, the startup co-founded by

veterans of Google, Tesla and Uber,
 Chris Urmson
may be Zoox's mirror opposite.
on Shift podcast:
Since its inception, the company
autonews.com/
has focused on one thing: Building a
urmsonpodcast
virtual driver versatile enough to control vehicles ranging from last-mile
delivery vehicles to Class 8 trucks.
tue of the acquisition is now an inWhile robotaxis have been part of vestor in Aurora. Hyundai also is an
Aurora's longer-term strategy, the investor in Aurora.
company has made no secret of its
Once Aurora is ready to deploy veefforts to prioritize trucking applica- hicles, the relationship with Uber
tions. Curious, then, that Aurora an- paves the way to a ready-made ridenounced its intentions to acquire hailing service that ranks among
Uber's
Advanced
Technology global leaders. Instead of creating a
Group last week, a deal in which vehicle, developing a self-driving
system and forging its own
Aurora receives ATG and
network, Aurora has de$400 million in exchange
cided to do one thing well.
for a 26 percent stake in the
" Building a business in
company.
any one of those spaces is
Uber ATG shuttered its
basically requiring a miraself-driving truck division
cle, " Urmson said. " If our
in July 2018 to concentrate
business model were to do
on self-driving taxis.
all three, then we'd be kind
Trucks remain Aurora's
of a three-miracle compafirst goal. CEO Chris Urm- Urmson: Can
son says the acquisition push on 2 fronts ny. I feel like it's enough to
ask for one miracle. "
gives the company more
It's a different approach from the
horsepower on both trucks and taxis.
" This is increasing the talent pool one taken by Zoox. But there's one
that we have, which means we're go- commonality between the compaing to be able to push the driver for- nies: Amazon. Sixteen months beward on both fronts, " he told Auto- fore it acquired Zoox, Amazon made
motive News. " I think that's really ex- an undisclosed investment in Aurociting, because we see both of these ra's $530 million Series B round in
verticals as important for the long- February 2019.
Trucks or robotaxis? Jack-of-allterm success of the company. "
While Aurora pushes forward on trades or a master of one? These are
its virtual driver, it will rely on others divergent avenues leading into the
for vehicle supply and a ride-hailing self-driving future. Meanwhile, Amazon's investment in one and purnetwork.
The deal with Uber brings aboard chase of the other is reminiscent of
Toyota Motor Corp., which had been the old cliché: Upon reaching a fork
an investor in Uber ATG and by vir- in the road, take it. n

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Automotive News - December 21, 2020

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