James Cox founded The Routing Company to apply ride-matching technology once used for UberPool to transit and on-demand transport. The Routing Company has arranged three million trips across 13 U.S. states and five countries by matching riders with vehicles efficiently and cheaply. Zoox purchased a non-exclusive license to that technology and brought five engineers from the startup to improve robotaxi efficiency and scalability. Cox will serve as a senior advisor to Zoox's chief product officer while remaining CEO of The Routing Company. Any new tech developed by the engineers inside Zoox will belong to Zoox.
When James Cox, the former leader of Uber's ride-share product, UberPool, left that company in 2019, the Silicon Valley giant had abandoned its autonomous vehicle development and sold off the division entirely. While UberPool had struggled to take hold, Cox felt a massive opportunity had been missed: taking the core of UberPool's tech and applying it to robotaxis. For the last five years Cox has instead been running a small startup called The Routing Company, which helps transit agencies match riders with vehicles quickly and cheaply.
The Routing Company announced Wednesday that it has struck a deal with the Amazon-owned robotaxi company. Zoox will purchase a non-exclusive license for The Routing Company's tech, and also bring five of the startup's engineers on board to "advance the efficiency and scalability" of its fledgling robotaxi service. Cox himself will become a senior advisor to Mike White, Zoox's chief product officer. But the former Uber executive will continue on as CEO of The Routing Company. Any new tech that those engineers develop inside Zoox will stay with the Amazon-owned company. The companies declined to disclose the terms.
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