Zoox vehicle serves Las Vegas AirportZooxZoox has announced that on Sept 3, they began service to LAS airport in Las Vegas. Zoox has been operating its custom designed robotaxis in Las Vegas for about a year, though they are currently limited to serving a fixed stop network which involves several hotels and attractions. They recently added the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Sphere and T-Mobile arena. But the airport (both terminal 1 and 3) will be a very important location for visitors. Pick-up and drop-off is on the curb, near baggage claim in terminal 3, and in terminal 1 drop-off is at check-in, and pick-up at baggage claim as passengers probably would like.Serving an airport is an important milestone for a robotaxi, as airports are notoriously fickle destinations and LAS is particularly that way. Thanks to the taxi lobby, you won't see hotel shuttles, and the monorail stops just before the edge of the airport. Boring Company tunnels are planned to go there. So this is a good start, but I would like Zoox and others to go further to provide truly passenger-centric service.Zoox vehicles will be good for social groups, with their face-to-face seating. Their 4-wheel steering might help them handle the craze of airport PuDo (Pick-up/Drop-off) as well. Their bidirectional ability doesn't have immediate applications at an airport. On the other hand, Zoox vehicles have no luggage storage; you must put the bags in the center of the vehicle, by your legs. No problem for 1-2 people, a possible issue for 3-4 people and their bags. (A Waymo i-Pace also has limitations. An Ojai is better. The Tesla Cybercab, if it goes into operation at airports, has only 2 seats but features a huge luggage space.)AdvertisementAdvertisementI look forward to using a Zoox my next trip to LAS--that is if it's going to my hotel, which for now, it isn't. Las Vegas has the most restricted PuDo anywhere. There's no PuDo at the curb along the Strip, only at very traffic clogged official spots at big casinos. The convention center is often a nightmare too, though if Boring extends their tunnels, you might see people combine both those and a robotaxi.Waiting and LinesAll robotaxis today operate like Uber does, and not like traditional taxicabs. At the airport, taxis have a line of waiting drivers, the rider goes out and takes the first cab in line. With Uber and robotaxis, you summon in the app, and a vehicle (and driver) is assigned to you, and you usually wait for them to come to the airport from some remote waiting lot, and your assigned vehicle picks you up at the pick-up location, which is usually further away than the taxi line. At a few airports, Uber and Lyft have implemented a "taxi line" system where drivers wait in line, and you get in the first and show a code.This difference exists because taxis are all the same, and all are required by law to take you anywhere in the host town. With Ubers, you must be linked to a driver who accepts you and your destination. A lot of waiting is added.Robotaxis have no emotions though, they don't mind waiting, and they take any ride they are assigned. There is no reason to use the long-wait Uber approach. Instead I promote my second law of robocars: Robots should wait for humans, humans should never wait for robots. What this means is that by the time I get to the pick-up spot, my robotaxi should always be waiting for me, just as a taxi does. Even if I take extra time to get there (within reason.) This requires the robotaxi company to flow in enough vehicles for the passengers who are coming to the pick-up curb, but not to assign a particular one to me, unless I have requested a special vehicle (such as one with extra room for lots of bags or a large group.) I should just get in any one of the waiting vehicles, and if more passengers are coming, another one should immediately pull up and take its place.AdvertisementAdvertisementThis doesn't require the large amount of curb space the taxi line uses, just enough to handle the largest simultaneous number of passengers at any moment. The rest can wait in a staging area, but time their departures to replenish the ones at the pick-up spot as they leave.This brings in a 3rd principle (not quite a law.) In the interests of efficiency, whenever possible a robotaxi bringing passengers to a destination should pick up outgoing passengers, if practical. Not all airports have a quick path for vehicles from arrivals to departures (which is often one floor up.) It's usually pretty easy for passengers to get between levels in this case. Taxis drop off passengers at departures, and loop around to join the taxi line at arrivals. Robotaxis could do that too, but it's hard for Uber-style vehicles for multiple reasons. One is the assignment of vehicles to passengers in advance, and the other is the need to be fair to both passengers and drivers. Some drivers have been waiting in the staging lot for as much as an hour, in virtual line for a fare. They will revolt if they keep waiting because somebody who just got there grabs it with zero wait. But passengers definitely want a vehicle right away. Robotaxis don't have any of those issues.Ideal ExperienceThe ideal experience for robotaxi pick-up would be to summon your ride before your flight takes off, back at your origin airport. You would enter your flight number (though the robotaxi can probably guess) and if you have checked bags. From this, the service can track your flight as it flies and lands, and know when you get to the gate. This lets them schedule enough vehicles to be at airport staging lots to handle all passengers. When you land and open their app, it will instruct you on where to go, but also (with your permission) watch you as you walk to the airport, estimating when you will arrive at the pick-up spot. It can watch the bags from your flight to improve that estimate, and even know your walking speed, and if you said you wanted extra time.But mostly, by watching you move, it will know when to get a vehicle to the pick-up curb. Which is a short time before you will get there. As you walk up, your vehicle will light up for you and you will quickly load and board and leave. That's the magic experience riders want.AdvertisementAdvertisementOf course, you can also summon when you land, as people do today. But even that you can do at the gate, not the curb, and probably get the same good experience (though not guaranteed as it is if you book it before leaving.)A Robocar AirportIn the airport of the future, a truly ideal experience would have small luggage robots instead of the current belt and carousel system. Then your bags would zip out to park right next to your robotaxi, and when arriving you they would wait empty with tag printers and scales and human bag check assistants, right at the curb. But then the robocar airport of the future doesn't even have terminal buildings, except for security.This article was originally published on Forbes.com