Not Your Average Self-Driving Startups

Aurora and Zoox are two up-and-comers in the autonomous vehicle (AV) arena taking a different tack than the competition. Axios set out to figure out what—if any—secret sauce these startups are cooking with.

First up: Aurora, fresh off a $530 million funding round.

• It’s building eyes, ears, and brains in a suite of software and hardware integrated into AVs as the “driver.”
• That “driver” tech can be very scalable if perfected (a big if). "We’re just one driver who happens to be cloned 100,000 times," Aurora co-founder Sterling Anderson told Axios.

Next: Zoox, which is developing driverless electric robotaxis for dense urban centers. Axios scored the first interview with Zoox CEO Aicha Evans, a Senegal-born former Intel exec who came on board in January.

• She calls AVs a “multitrillion dollar opportunity.”
• Zoox is testing prototypes now but says its cars will hit the road next year.

Big picture: Amazon has invested in Aurora, a vote of confidence for the company’s eyes, ears, and brains plan. And in December, Zoox scored the first California permit to transport passengers in a self-driving car (as opposed to the 60+ companies with permits to test AVs).