Self-driving cars: Zoox joins growing list of companies testing in Phoenix

PHOENIX - Zoox, Amazon’s autonomous rideshare company, is the latest to bring self-driving technology to the Phoenix area, announcing new testing in Phoenix earlier in March.

This is just the latest in a growing list of driverless companies choosing the area, and we are taking a closer look at what makes the Valley such a hotspot for this cutting-edge technology.

"Phoenix is an incredible city for innovation. We are very open to companies who are using new technology," said Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego.

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Mayor Gallego says the city took pride in becoming the first in the world to offer Waymo rides to and from Sky Harbor Airport. Now, from the weather to the way streets are built, Phoenix is drawing even more self-driving companies to the area.

"We’ve been so successful that we’ve had delegations from all over the world that have come to study autonomous vehicles and what we’re doing," Gallego said.

Gallego says Phoenix’s pro-business climate, sunny weather, and well-designed streets make it ideal for self-driving tech, with local talent helping fuel that growth.

"Arizona and Phoenix are becoming the new hub of tech, and the amount of talents that the local education system are essentially producing, including ASU, constantly [provide] tech talent to support development and deployment of all this high tech," said YZ Yang, a professor at the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence within the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University.

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Officials say the impact is already showing up on Valley roads.

"We feel like maybe we don’t need as many parking spaces in areas like downtown. We have seen some traffic calming effects. We have some areas that have problems with speeding; the Waymos go the speed limit," Gallego said.

As the technology grows, so do the challenges, making coordination a key to its future success.

"There have been some challenges that we have all seen, and we want to address those as quick as possible. We need to have standards for our first responders. They need to be able to communicate from outside the vehicle and address emergencies as they come up," Gallego said. "Early on we had a lot of folks with a lot of questions. Now the comment I get most is when are they going to map and expand to my area."

Mayor Gallego, along with Professor Yang, said the community support in Phoenix and other parts of the Valley has been a huge driver of the success of autonomous vehicles.