Amazon’s ride-hailing exec wants to move people around in robotaxis: 'If you’re with friends it’s dramatically more social'

lastmansurfing
Dec 18, 2025
1 min read

As Amazon’s Zoox ramps up its bid to compete with Google’s Waymo, cofounder and chief technology officer Jesse Levinson says one key feature sets the self-driving robotaxi unit apart from its rival.

While a Waymo’s interior resembles a traditional car—with two rows of seats and a screen or steering wheel on the front left—Zoox’s vehicle features two rows of seats facing one another, a configuration Levinson says is better suited for groups.

“It’s just a much better experience, so your time in the vehicle is dramatically nicer,” he said at the Fortune Brainstorm AI event in San Francisco earlier this month. “You have much more space. If you’re with friends, it’s dramatically more social, because you’re facing each other.”