Speaker 1: So this is a lab. Yeah, this is uh, the
Speaker 1: robot taxi of flex Line where they come in. First,
Speaker 1: it's just a body, that's what I call it, the
Speaker 1: body of the vehicle, and then lots of pieces that
Speaker 1: have to be assembled, put together, tested. Now I'm told
Speaker 1: you're not building a quote unquote car. No, I'm not.
Speaker 1: Does this look like a car to you. Don't say
Speaker 1: the word car. Don't say the word car. It's a vehicle. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a transportation vehicle. Will sell you a ride in this vehicle.
Speaker 1: Can we get in? Of course you can right there.
Speaker 1: It is okay, so comfortable. That's what we want. We
Speaker 1: don't want you to think about driving. This is why
Speaker 1: it's not a car. Hi. Everyone, I'm Emily Chang and
Speaker 1: welcome to the latest edition of Bloomberg Studio. At one
Speaker 1: point now today, we're taking you to the Zoo's factory
Speaker 1: floor in Fremont, California, where they believe they're building the
Speaker 1: future of transportation. You're listening to CEO Aisha Evans, one
Speaker 1: of the top ranking black women in Silicon Valley who
Speaker 1: grew up in Senegal. After twelve years working her way
Speaker 1: up to the top ranks at Intel, she took a
Speaker 1: leap into the startup world to join Zooks with a
Speaker 1: goal to transform ride hailing as we know it. Just
Speaker 1: a year later, she sold the company to Amazon for
Speaker 1: one point two billion dollars. How does Zouks fit into
Speaker 1: the future of ride hailing and Amazon? Could a Zooks
Speaker 1: deliver your Amazon packages one day? Here's Evan's view of
Speaker 1: the road ahead on this episode of Bloomberg Studio one
Speaker 1: point out, so great to be here with you. Thank
Speaker 1: you for coming and thank you for having me. You
Speaker 1: came to Zooks as CEO and over from Intel, and
Speaker 1: just a year later you sold it to Amazon. How
Speaker 1: did that happen so quickly? It was a journey. Um.
Speaker 1: It takes a lot of capital to um takes this
Speaker 1: endeavor all the way. It's a it's a worthy one.
Speaker 1: And when we looked at the ecosystem, when we looked
Speaker 1: at everything that was going around, we had to decide
Speaker 1: whether to stay private or whether to get a long
Speaker 1: term oriented partner like some of our fellow travelers. And
Speaker 1: then the pandemic hit. That brought a lot of clarity,
Speaker 1: shall we say, And so the opportunity presented itself and
Speaker 1: we went for it. Wise, Amazon the right fit. First
Speaker 1: of all, they are a great company. Uh. They have
Speaker 1: created both octogonal and adjacent multibillion dollar businesses. They are
Speaker 1: long term oriented and very purpose driven, so that matched
Speaker 1: our ambitions. They've never owned a car company though. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but we're not a car company exactly. We're a right
Speaker 1: hailing company. Talk to me a little bit about how
Speaker 1: you got to Silicon Valley. Your story is not the
Speaker 1: story of a typical tex EO like Jeff Bezos or
Speaker 1: Eddie Jassy. Tell us about your upbringing. I was born
Speaker 1: in Senegal, West Africa. Hum. My parents, I thanked them
Speaker 1: to this day. UH sort of made school um an
Speaker 1: implicit expectation. It was an up for discussion. Very early on.
Speaker 1: I showed an aptitude and interest uh in math, physics,
Speaker 1: not so much in biology and in building things. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so they cultivated that. And then I bounced back
Speaker 1: between Paris and UH and Senegal, learned a lot about
Speaker 1: what technology does to people's lives, uh, and what it
Speaker 1: makes possible. I literally had a contrast every few months.
Speaker 1: And so computers were coming online, not the Internet, but
Speaker 1: what the Internet was going to make possible was also
Speaker 1: coming online. The US was to the place to be
Speaker 1: to study that, and so I came to the US
Speaker 1: and I went to school and then very boringly, I
Speaker 1: met an American boy who is my husband, and really
Speaker 1: that's how I ended up staying. So you go to
Speaker 1: computer Uh then basically, UM got jobs in the industry
Speaker 1: and eventually ended up at Intel in Importlands. Through that
Speaker 1: started interfacing with Silicon Valley, and then zooks came along.
Speaker 1: So I don't really think of myself. I just happened
Speaker 1: the journey led me here. I heard a story about
Speaker 1: you hackake a phone in order to talk to your
Speaker 1: friends long distance. Did that really happen? Oh? Yeah, I did. Um, Well,
Speaker 1: when you're in France, you want to I I always
Speaker 1: had a double life a little bit in terms of
Speaker 1: family friends in different ecosystems. I still do to this day.
Speaker 1: And so back then it was landlines. It was expensive
Speaker 1: and my dad is in was intellcommunication, so if he
Speaker 1: was not confused, so we had a rotary phone, I'm
Speaker 1: dating myself and he locked it. But obviously I figured
Speaker 1: out how to still make the phone calls. Who were
Speaker 1: role models back then. I mean, it's so hard for
Speaker 1: young people, especially young girls, to see themselves in the
Speaker 1: tech industry. Um. Mary Curry was and still is a
Speaker 1: role model. Um. In France, you study philosophy and a
Speaker 1: lot of the philosophers are also mathematicians. Uh so they
Speaker 1: were a role model, and they also forced you to think,
Speaker 1: So those who are my main role models? At least
Speaker 1: at the time. So after you, you know, meet this
Speaker 1: American boy, you decide to stay. You worked your way
Speaker 1: up to chief strategy officer at Intel, and it was
Speaker 1: a difficult time for Intel. Intel was kind of losing
Speaker 1: its way. What was it like working there at that time?
Speaker 1: First of all, Um, I grew up there. I entered
Speaker 1: as a sort of second third line manager and moved
Speaker 1: up the ranks. I'll always be grateful for everything that
Speaker 1: I've learned there. Um. Yes, it was a difficult time
Speaker 1: in the sense that anytime you're successful, you earned the
Speaker 1: opportunity to talk about what's the next phase of the journey,
Speaker 1: and I was in the middle of that. But it
Speaker 1: was also fun. I learned a lot. Um, I made
Speaker 1: great funds and I'm rooting for today and I'm proud
Speaker 1: of them and the journey there on. So what do
Speaker 1: you think about Pat Gelsingers? Very ambitious, very grand, very expensive,
Speaker 1: plan to turn Intel into a foundry to bring chip
Speaker 1: manufacturing back to the United States at a heavy cost.
Speaker 1: Is it going to pay off? I don't know. I
Speaker 1: hope so I can't really. I mean, I don't work
Speaker 1: there anymore, so I don't know the details of it.
Speaker 1: What I can tell you is that semiconductors are in
Speaker 1: everything in our lives, from small to big, from consumer
Speaker 1: to enterprise. And it's almost like, um, I don't know
Speaker 1: electricity in some ways, and so I'm rooting for them.
Speaker 1: What was it like going from an established brand name,
Speaker 1: storied tech company like Intel to a startup like Zooks.
Speaker 1: I assume there are major differences in culture and execution there.
Speaker 1: It was quite an awakening. Uh So I didn't tell
Speaker 1: I was a little bit known as uh, not a rebel,
Speaker 1: but um somebody who questioned things and who maybe did
Speaker 1: the normal Oh my gosh, you know was too slow?
Speaker 1: Is this or that or the other? An agitator of source?
Speaker 1: An agitator, yes, a change agents, I think is the
Speaker 1: elegant way of putting it. And so all right, when
Speaker 1: I arrived at Zuits, yes, it was fast, Uh it was.
Speaker 1: We were making decisions quickly, but from an infrastructure standpoint.
Speaker 1: We I was like, WHOA, maybe there's a reason for
Speaker 1: infrastructure and so, but I embrace the journey and said, okay,
Speaker 1: we have to build one when you're doing what we're doing. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's not just about the technology. You have to think
Speaker 1: about the steps to get into market. You also have
Speaker 1: to think about building the company so that it's ready
Speaker 1: when you scale. If you wait until you need to
Speaker 1: scale to actually build the infrastructure, bad things happen. I
Speaker 1: also want to ask you a question about the founding store.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the founders no longer works here.
Speaker 1: One of the founder still works here and is the CTO,
Speaker 1: And I'm curious how important it is in your view
Speaker 1: to have a founder remaining at a company and what
Speaker 1: your approach is to that as a CEO who came
Speaker 1: in from the outside. Yes, Um, Jesse Levinson, Uh, he's
Speaker 1: our CTEO and co founder. I think it's important to
Speaker 1: have a founder. I'm not confused. I wasn't here at
Speaker 1: the beginning, and especially the company Zooks has been extremely
Speaker 1: consistent since inception. When we first said we're doing a
Speaker 1: ground up vahicule, people said the kind and not so
Speaker 1: Now people are coming around to that point of view
Speaker 1: because it does make some some problems easier on the
Speaker 1: AI side, plus the customer experience. Um, we worked together.
Speaker 1: I probably talked to Jesse outside of my kids and husband.
Speaker 1: I talked to Jessie more than I talked to anybody. Uh.
Speaker 1: He's probably graduated to be one of the person who
Speaker 1: knows me the most and the best. We partner. Uh,
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean we agree on everything, but we talked
Speaker 1: about it. We discussed. We went through something pretty difficult
Speaker 1: between the pandemic make and deciding, um what to do
Speaker 1: from a capital standpoint, and so I think that it's
Speaker 1: important to have a founder, but even more importantly, there
Speaker 1: has to be a really strong partnership and relationship. And
Speaker 1: if you can find that, then it's the best of
Speaker 1: both world because it's fully complimentary. How much has the
Speaker 1: vision changed from you know, the initial founders to today
Speaker 1: and you know, how do you how does that founder
Speaker 1: d n A then survive? The vision hasn't changed a bit.
Speaker 1: And both Jesse and I give actually uh credit to
Speaker 1: Tim who was the other co founder, because this was
Speaker 1: his vision. Ah, he's a designer. He came up with
Speaker 1: this concept and so we we give credit. And we've
Speaker 1: been consistent. We haven't literally deviated left or right. We've
Speaker 1: argued about timelines, we've argued maybe about the idea, the
Speaker 1: industrial design or things like that. The division absolutely consistent.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you something. Every we have these company
Speaker 1: all hands every often, so often we actually play the
Speaker 1: two thousand and fourteen pitch. It's identical, identical. That's amazing. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's all about execution and getting there. What's it like
Speaker 1: being a leading black female executive in such a white
Speaker 1: male industry. It depends. I don't wake up in the
Speaker 1: morning thinking I'm that. I wake up in the morning
Speaker 1: thinking I'm Asha. I've got stuff to do, meetings, decisions
Speaker 1: to make, kids to take care of, making sure denim
Speaker 1: is ready. Obviously in the moment, sometimes I think about
Speaker 1: it because you look around. But I try and turn
Speaker 1: it into an opportunity because and that's just how I
Speaker 1: have one on ones with myself, and how you think
Speaker 1: about it and how you show up it's important. So
Speaker 1: I try and tell myself that means that I'm bringing
Speaker 1: a perspective that nobody else has, and that's additive. And
Speaker 1: then I try and also figure out a way to
Speaker 1: have what I call an inclusive environment where I see
Speaker 1: people's point of view and they see mine, and I
Speaker 1: try not to get angry when it manifests itself in
Speaker 1: annoying ways. What are the obstacles that you've overcome to
Speaker 1: get here? Um? I think that often people assume, both
Speaker 1: from a gender and UH sort of ethnicity standpoint, that
Speaker 1: it's not normal to be here, and therefore maybe you've
Speaker 1: got a discount, when it's often the opposite. You have
Speaker 1: to try much harder than than others. I've had to
Speaker 1: work on sort of how I receive information when or
Speaker 1: how I really ideal with behaviors that are not acceptable,
Speaker 1: and sort of learn when you take the high road.
Speaker 1: I've had to find my voice and not be afraid
Speaker 1: of it and use it. So a lot of things
Speaker 1: like that. As you say you grew up at Intel,
Speaker 1: you grew up in this industry. Are you pleased with
Speaker 1: the change you've seen or has it not changed fast enough?
Speaker 1: I can't be pleased. I mean, I'm pleased that is change,
Speaker 1: but absolutely not. We have to do a lot more
Speaker 1: as an industry. Why isn't it changing faster? Why don't
Speaker 1: we see more people like you in positions of power. Well,
Speaker 1: I think that's a complicated answer. I think it starts
Speaker 1: very early on. I think it starts. I've been public
Speaker 1: about Lego robotics. That was eye opening for me. I
Speaker 1: have a son who participates in Lego robotics, and we
Speaker 1: had some observations and kids are what seven eight and
Speaker 1: you already see differences. I think also from a social standpoint,
Speaker 1: around middle school, when there's a transition for girls, maybe
Speaker 1: having a support system to stay in math, demystifying it,
Speaker 1: teaching it differently, and then as people come up the ranks,
Speaker 1: making sure, especially for women, making sure that we have
Speaker 1: a support system around them so they can traverse through
Speaker 1: some of the some of the phases like for example,
Speaker 1: marriage and childbirth and so on. You're building a ride
Speaker 1: hailing service, not a car. Why is it important to
Speaker 1: have a woman in the room, people of different races
Speaker 1: in the room, Because we are about selling a ride
Speaker 1: to a customer, and the customers they look like many
Speaker 1: different people. I'll give you a story. We were discussing
Speaker 1: pick up and drop off, and um, I'm the only
Speaker 1: woman in the room. Yes, I'm always in jeans and
Speaker 1: what have you. But occasionally I dressed up and have
Speaker 1: high heels on. We're wearing high heels today, yep. I
Speaker 1: made a comment when you arrived, right, and so I
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, we have to think about it from
Speaker 1: that standpoint, because if we're giving right to customers in
Speaker 1: San Francisco, for example, on a Friday evening, on a
Speaker 1: Saturday evening, maybe some folks have heels on, and maybe
Speaker 1: we need to think about the pick up rages because
Speaker 1: expecting them to go uphills in you know, high heels
Speaker 1: probably not a good idea. That's why it matters, you know,
Speaker 1: from a product perspective. Right, let's talk about the competition.
Speaker 1: What is Zoox's edge over GM's crew those Googles way now,
Speaker 1: and if you could level with us, what's their edge
Speaker 1: over zooks um. First of all, I look at them
Speaker 1: a little bit like fellow travelers. Yes, we're competitors because
Speaker 1: we're in the same space and we're going after some
Speaker 1: of the same things. But this is a big industry.
Speaker 1: We are not a car company. We are transportation company
Speaker 1: and humans since inception whenever, that was all about transportation
Speaker 1: and always going somewhere to either have access to information,
Speaker 1: access to more to a better livelihood or so on.
Speaker 1: So it's a huge market. We do not expect one company.
Speaker 1: It's not going to be a winner take on. So
Speaker 1: we're fellow travelers in some ways. Second, it's a safety
Speaker 1: critical product and therefore I think it's important to lay
Speaker 1: that groundwork. Now. Having said that, I would say one
Speaker 1: of the big differences is that we are going straight
Speaker 1: to what we think is the ideal product to provide
Speaker 1: rights to customers. We are not here to enhance your
Speaker 1: driving experience. We don't even want you to think about driving.
Speaker 1: So the customer experience is built in such a way
Speaker 1: that you're here to be transported. You have an app
Speaker 1: which you already know how to do today. You have
Speaker 1: an app where you say I want to go from
Speaker 1: point A to point B, especially in dense urban environments
Speaker 1: think downtown San Francisco, and we show up and we
Speaker 1: pick you up. Sliding doors, you step in a little
Speaker 1: bit London cab inspired communal seating. You couldn't write alone
Speaker 1: or with friends or basically with other people. You buckle up,
Speaker 1: you push, start, do whatever you want to do, Relax,
Speaker 1: meditate beyond your device. What about Tesla, which is right
Speaker 1: down the street. Our Tesla and Elon must competition, fellow travelers.
Speaker 1: I think we're in the same general industry. Um. First
Speaker 1: of all, we have a lot of respect for for
Speaker 1: Tesla and what they've made possible, both intrinsically meaning the company,
Speaker 1: but also for the industry. This is Silicon Valley, were
Speaker 1: you know, paid tribute to disruptors. Having said that, we're
Speaker 1: not exactly in the same business. We don't sell a
Speaker 1: car to people. We sell a right to people. Our
Speaker 1: customers are not drivers. There are writers, and therefore we
Speaker 1: use the same types of technologies, but they are in
Speaker 1: the car selling business. So how does Zookes fit into
Speaker 1: the future of Amazon? Well, that story is yet to
Speaker 1: be written. First of all, we are we hope to
Speaker 1: deliver on the promise of a new segment and uh
Speaker 1: sort of a big business uh and be one of
Speaker 1: those in the tradition of of Amazon. And then what
Speaker 1: happens then? Who knows that? We know there's a world
Speaker 1: of possibilities, but I tell everybody we first have to
Speaker 1: earn it right before we talk about sort of synergies
Speaker 1: and possibilities and opportunities together. Zero times anything is still
Speaker 1: zero and it will be for a long time. So
Speaker 1: We're focusing on building our business, getting market and then
Speaker 1: there's a myriad of possibilities of things we could do together.
Speaker 1: Zoo is going to be dropping off my boxes. Is
Speaker 1: that what I should expect potentially, if that's the right
Speaker 1: thing to do and if it makes sense to do so.
Speaker 1: But first we're going to make sure to take you
Speaker 1: everywhere you need to go without having to worry about parking,
Speaker 1: having a car and so on. What's it like having
Speaker 1: Amazon as your boss? It's been good. I get that
Speaker 1: question a lot, by the way, It's been really good.
Speaker 1: It's been about a year and I don't know, nine
Speaker 1: ten months. So well, you know, Amazon is it's often
Speaker 1: know more as an overlord, especially when it comes to investments.
Speaker 1: You know that they're very involved. Is that the case? Um,
Speaker 1: we're an independent subsidiary of of Amazon, So yes, they
Speaker 1: are involved, but I don't know, No, they are not
Speaker 1: an overlord or anything like that. We agree on what's
Speaker 1: going to happen, why it's going to happen, and then
Speaker 1: we basically we've we've run pretty independently. They're very available
Speaker 1: though if we have a question or if they have
Speaker 1: a question. There as communication going on, but we know,
Speaker 1: we don't feel like swamp or anything like that. How
Speaker 1: often did you talk to Jeff Bezos or do you
Speaker 1: talk to Andy Jassy or maybe it's Dave limp Um.
Speaker 1: I don't talk to them that often. I mean we
Speaker 1: have a monthly business review or quality business review or
Speaker 1: or just but no, this is that I know a
Speaker 1: lot of people ask me that question to know. It's
Speaker 1: not like I'm besties with them and we're on the
Speaker 1: phone and wrapping and channing. Now, so well, you must
Speaker 1: know what their expectations are of you? What what what
Speaker 1: are their expectations of you? What is Amazon expecting of
Speaker 1: zoos execute get to market scale? And do you have
Speaker 1: the funding to do that? Gm? Google very well funded
Speaker 1: competitors or fellow travelers. As you say, are you getting
Speaker 1: what you need? Yes? More than what I need. I'm
Speaker 1: funding is not something I even worry about. So what's
Speaker 1: it like to operate in that environment where money is
Speaker 1: not an issue? Well, I mean you have to be careful,
Speaker 1: right because you also don't want to be a drunken
Speaker 1: sailor and be like, oh now I have you still
Speaker 1: have to be uh, very disciplined. You have to manage
Speaker 1: the phases of the business. We don't sit here and
Speaker 1: talk about Amazon a lot, or talk about even fellow
Speaker 1: travelers a lot. We're like, Okay, how do we execute?
Speaker 1: How do we make our mouthstones? How do we get
Speaker 1: to market where things organized properly? How do we hire?
Speaker 1: How do we retain and so on and so forth?
Speaker 1: How do we stay mission driven? The public seems to
Speaker 1: have lost interest in waiting around for self driving cars.
Speaker 1: I wrote in Google self Driving Car in twenty eleven,
Speaker 1: and I'm still waiting to be able to buy or
Speaker 1: just ride a self driving car on demand. Why is
Speaker 1: it taking so long? I think in self driving First
Speaker 1: of all, the opportunity is so clear. Um the so
Speaker 1: the beach is so broad. We forgot that big things
Speaker 1: do start small. One second, it's a hard problem to solve.
Speaker 1: We talk a lot about safety, uh, and we talked
Speaker 1: talk a lot about human error when it comes to driving,
Speaker 1: But we also forget that collectively, at least in the
Speaker 1: United States of America, humans collectively drive a hundred million
Speaker 1: miles before having a fatality. That's a lot of mouths.
Speaker 1: So humans are also pretty good. And the thing humans
Speaker 1: are good at, which is hand I call it exception handling.
Speaker 1: We all know how to drive. If we're all fully autonomous,
Speaker 1: would be deployed already. But we're driving amongst human and
Speaker 1: you have to deal with so many little scenarios. There
Speaker 1: are so many things that you've been learning about driving
Speaker 1: since births and codifying that using AI sensors and computers
Speaker 1: is turning out to be a lot harder. Last, but
Speaker 1: not least, it's a safety critical system. None of us
Speaker 1: should deploy until unless we have closed loop evidence that
Speaker 1: we're safe. So what is the AI need to learn
Speaker 1: how to do at this point? What are the challenges
Speaker 1: left to solve? It needs to know how to deal
Speaker 1: with unexpected things as they as they happen. And is
Speaker 1: that possible that it can? Can? I learned that, of
Speaker 1: course it's possible. I mean I'm one of I'm an
Speaker 1: optimist when it comes to technology. I saught it in wireless.
Speaker 1: So you have to think from switchboards all the way
Speaker 1: to today. Quite a journey. Um. I'm fascinated by flying airplanes.
Speaker 1: The right brothers, if they were trying to solve what
Speaker 1: is being sold in aviation today, they wouldn't have tried.
Speaker 1: We we just let let it marinate, let it take
Speaker 1: its time. The algorithms will get better. Uh, compute gets
Speaker 1: better all the time, censors get better all the time.
Speaker 1: It will happen. What about security challenges? We've reported on
Speaker 1: how Tesla's have been hacked. What can happen when AI
Speaker 1: gets behind the wheel. So you have to design security
Speaker 1: in your into your product from the beginning, and for us,
Speaker 1: we look at all the scenarios of what could happen
Speaker 1: from a security standpoint. We have a road map around
Speaker 1: that we developed around that. Now, these these robots or
Speaker 1: these robot taxes are also recording all the time, so
Speaker 1: they sort of know what's happening inside of them and
Speaker 1: around them, So that gives us a little bit of
Speaker 1: a of an edge. And then you look at access.
Speaker 1: But this is something you just have to pay attention
Speaker 1: to understand what's going on in that world and make
Speaker 1: sure that you design against it. How many rights have
Speaker 1: you taken? A lot our employees, Actually it's not fair, right,
Speaker 1: I take a lot of rights both in our L
Speaker 1: three testing fleet as well as in the ground up
Speaker 1: ROBOTAXI where I was really it was around Christmas time,
Speaker 1: you know, the pandemic. It's been hard and we're finally
Speaker 1: able to offer some of our employees ride. Over two
Speaker 1: hundred people have taken rides, and now it's going to
Speaker 1: be part of just you know, the operation to offer
Speaker 1: rides on a continuous basis and that's really cool. Yes,
Speaker 1: oh no, not yet, no no no. So on the
Speaker 1: L three fleet around San Francisco within our GEO fans
Speaker 1: and for the ground a robot taxi around here as
Speaker 1: well as UM we have a private campus we operate on.
Speaker 1: So in so when you take a ride, what's your
Speaker 1: report like generally afterwards? Well, okay, so two different things
Speaker 1: on the test fleet because and this is a big
Speaker 1: difference between us and our fellow travelers. I mean our
Speaker 1: L three fleet, the Toyota Highlanders that are outfitted with
Speaker 1: the same center, architecture, placement and compute. They are purely
Speaker 1: engineering test vehicles. So when I it's called drive review.
Speaker 1: When I take a ride, it is with understanding what
Speaker 1: progress we're making, what issues were still having. I'm fascinated
Speaker 1: by the scenarios we can't handle, how fast was teleopts
Speaker 1: able to step in and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: So then I have a long report and the app
Speaker 1: and this and that. When I'm in the robot taxi,
Speaker 1: it's more like I'm excited. I'm usually giggly. Uh. And
Speaker 1: then after five minutes on board and I'm on my device,
Speaker 1: which is what you want. Yeah, and you know are
Speaker 1: you After you take a ride, you send a note
Speaker 1: back to your team and say, all right, you need
Speaker 1: to work on a few things or you know, good
Speaker 1: job of this, good job at that. Oh the ways.
Speaker 1: But usually after drive review, there's a team that gets
Speaker 1: a summary and dispatches. Um. And then when it comes
Speaker 1: to the robot taxi often we talk about it at
Speaker 1: weekly all hands, How is it navigating supply chain challenges?
Speaker 1: Has the chip crisis impacted you? Yes, it has. It's
Speaker 1: impacted everybody. Um. Look, first of all, some things are
Speaker 1: just more expensive than they should be. Uh. Second, but
Speaker 1: you accept that it's the same for everybody. You have
Speaker 1: to get a lot more crisp around your needs because
Speaker 1: lead times are longer. And uh, that's really when it
Speaker 1: pays off to have had a good relationship with your
Speaker 1: suppliers and treated them as partners so you can talk
Speaker 1: about your problem statement and arrived to solutions. But it
Speaker 1: hasn't like slowed us down. It's just been an extra
Speaker 1: vector to manage. Do you see an end in sight
Speaker 1: for the chip crisis? There will be, and we will
Speaker 1: get back to reason and frequency, but it's going to
Speaker 1: take a while. It's also coming at a at an
Speaker 1: incredible demand time, so we'll figure it out now. Some
Speaker 1: of your competitors have been very loud, making a lot
Speaker 1: of noise about testing on public roads, commercial opportunities. Zoos
Speaker 1: has been generally a little bit more quiet. Why is
Speaker 1: that we tend to be on the quiet side? Um,
Speaker 1: we everybody knows what we're up to. I hope. If not,
Speaker 1: I'm happy to talk about that. You're talking to us
Speaker 1: about it now, there you go. We feel that putting
Speaker 1: points on the boards is really where it's at. One
Speaker 1: of the advantages of not having to fundraise means that
Speaker 1: demos are not that important to us. We don't feel
Speaker 1: that kind of pressure. We have a roadmap to execute
Speaker 1: two and let's just get to public roads and we
Speaker 1: think we're with with a ground up built for riders,
Speaker 1: robot taxi and that's what we're focusing on. In between,
Speaker 1: when we have important things to say, we'll say that,
Speaker 1: but we don't feel like engaging in you know, PR scuffles.
Speaker 1: Uber and lifts seemed like they would be obvious partners.
Speaker 1: Could we talked to them? We in this industry, there
Speaker 1: are no secrets, and we're all friends. We all talked
Speaker 1: to each other at some level on another, So, yes,
Speaker 1: we all have talked to each other. Look, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it depends maybe maybe not. Uh. I do know that
Speaker 1: we've done a lot of hard work to get to
Speaker 1: the promised land. One thing that is important is the
Speaker 1: customer channel um and having access to that. However, you
Speaker 1: never say never, but our goal right now is to
Speaker 1: go all the way. Who do you imagine would be
Speaker 1: your first customers? Well, first of all, Las Vegas. We've
Speaker 1: been public that that's our our first lounge. A lot
Speaker 1: of people on the road there too that Yes, it's
Speaker 1: a yeah, but it's it's a good driving environment. It's
Speaker 1: I call it a sort of affectionately one street dance
Speaker 1: urban environment. How's that with a lot of demands? Uh?
Speaker 1: And then we really think that in starting at least
Speaker 1: at the beginning, big cities that have a very dense,
Speaker 1: uh urban sort of landscape where people are going to work,
Speaker 1: people are going to museums, people are going to restaurants.
Speaker 1: They don't want to worry about parking. We think that
Speaker 1: will be the first customer. So commercialization is on the
Speaker 1: horizon in Las Vegas and also San Francisco that would
Speaker 1: be next. Um, how do you stay motivated on that
Speaker 1: road to commercialization given that there are still, as you say,
Speaker 1: these hard problems to solve because every day literally either
Speaker 1: something happens in terms of progress, and it's really important
Speaker 1: to not just look at the ultimate success. But I
Speaker 1: call it like kind of along the way, the little celebration.
Speaker 1: I mean even when I do drive review, yes, I
Speaker 1: have a long list of you know, what about this,
Speaker 1: what about that? But the vehicle will do something new
Speaker 1: or something awesome and you're like, oh my gosh, it
Speaker 1: does something wonderful and I'm like, you go awesome. So
Speaker 1: there are so many things that happen on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: weekly basis that you see advancement. I I talk it's
Speaker 1: like climbing, right, It's like you get to a certain
Speaker 1: element or certain place, you appreciate the journey, you turn around,
Speaker 1: you look down, you see what you've done. Then you're like,
Speaker 1: all right, let's go for the next week. So as
Speaker 1: you put points on the board, what does I sha
Speaker 1: evans see as the future of zook. Do you see
Speaker 1: a global mobility giant or do you see something more modest?
Speaker 1: I see, I want and I hope to lay the
Speaker 1: foundation for a global mobility giant. We talked about human
Speaker 1: being need transportation everywhere. It opens up access to economic mobility,
Speaker 1: It opens up access to knowledge, it opens up access
Speaker 1: to inclusion. Uh, not to mention safety, the environment and
Speaker 1: frankly humans, which is too valuable to spend. Also, four
Speaker 1: hundred billion hours worldwide driving and as more people come
Speaker 1: up the ladder, that means we need more housing, We
Speaker 1: need so many different things, and we think that this
Speaker 1: is at the center of that puzzle. So that is
Speaker 1: the goal, all right, So we're gonna do this is
Speaker 1: a little rapid fire section now. Um so just quick answers.
Speaker 1: Um what a zooks stand for? The word zoos is
Speaker 1: basically a marine um uh sort of species that is
Speaker 1: solar powered and self moving in the ocean. Interesting. Best
Speaker 1: piece of advice for your twenties, take a shell pill
Speaker 1: It'll be okay. What about your forties. Enjoy the journey
Speaker 1: you've made it. Um. I hear you're under restaurant at
Speaker 1: some point? Is that true? I confuse the love of
Speaker 1: cooking and running a restaurant. What's your favorite thing to cook?
Speaker 1: Chebujan which is a Senegalese dish. Biggest guilty pleasure? Trashy books?
Speaker 1: What bos not telling? Um? Speaking of fellow travelers, what's
Speaker 1: your favorite travel destination? Hawaii? Me too? Which island Hawaii?
Speaker 1: I'm from Hawaii? Kauai all the way? Or sure? Last
Speaker 1: TV show you binged? I'm in the middle of it.
Speaker 1: A bridgeton same so good. What's your view on work
Speaker 1: life integration. I don't use the word balance, neither do
Speaker 1: I work life choices, setting expectations on all sides. Um,
Speaker 1: how do your kids fit into your life? They are everything?
Speaker 1: They are the beginning and the end. Our driver list
Speaker 1: future is always right around the corner or ten years away.
Speaker 1: Give us a realistic timeline. When can we ride in
Speaker 1: a zooks? If you're life's Vegas, much sooner than you think,
Speaker 1: But then it will be an evolution year by year.
Speaker 1: I think a better way to answer the question is
Speaker 1: a lot of people ask me, when can I tell
Speaker 1: my kids they can't have a they shouldn't get a
Speaker 1: driver's license. And I think it's going to be probably
Speaker 1: my kids kids. Really, that's a little farther off than
Speaker 1: I would. I thought, Well, let's scale and ubiquitous. Remember
Speaker 1: we're very conservative study Eddie or realistic, that's what I think.
Speaker 1: Thank you for saying it. It's a few decades at
Speaker 1: scale when anybody can be in one. Obviously, if you're
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas, if you're in San Francisco or Frankly,
Speaker 1: fellow travel, if you're in Arizona right now, that's a
Speaker 1: different story. But that's the beginning small things to become
Speaker 1: big things. So when I answer that question, I think
Speaker 1: about big things, meaning the majority of people can speaking
Speaker 1: of another big thing. Arguments for and against going public
Speaker 1: against definitely focus. Um, the quarterly pressure is something I
Speaker 1: understand and know, and this is a long term journey,
Speaker 1: so focus is important for it seems to be everybody's
Speaker 1: dream in this valley, Is it yours? My dream is
Speaker 1: to to get this uh, this robot taxi out there
Speaker 1: and to see it delivered the promise that I know
Speaker 1: it well. So paint the bigger picture picture of the
Speaker 1: future of transportation, whether it's zooks or self driving cars
Speaker 1: or self flying taxis or hyper loops. Do you see
Speaker 1: this Jetson's like vision in the future or is it
Speaker 1: something different? Oh? I think it's coming and it's necessary
Speaker 1: because I'm an optimist again. I want more people participating
Speaker 1: in the economy at the sweet spots of the economy.
Speaker 1: And when you look at that and you look at
Speaker 1: the numbers, Uh, we just need to make transportation a
Speaker 1: service as opposed to anything else. What does success look
Speaker 1: like for zooks this year? We have a big milestone
Speaker 1: that we need to accomplish on our way arms like
Speaker 1: within arms reach of putting it on a public road.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of work to happen, and so
Speaker 1: making that happen and doing it in a way that
Speaker 1: the team is not the team is not exhausted, that's
Speaker 1: success for me. Is zooks get going to be on
Speaker 1: public quotes this year? I don't know. We'll have to see.
Speaker 1: What about ten years? What a success look like for
Speaker 1: zoos in ten years several cities and there, I say, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm going to zooks my way over there? What about
Speaker 1: for you? What a success for Asia? I think, first,
Speaker 1: my kids are productive adults, whatever that means for them.
Speaker 1: Our kinds and good humans are responsible people. That's step
Speaker 1: one and choose wisely with whom they pair up with,
Speaker 1: and then second built a foundation here that when it
Speaker 1: comes to scale, it will be a rapid fire and automatic.
Speaker 1: So what do you imagine the zoo's presentation will be
Speaker 1: in would be the same, It will be well, there
Speaker 1: will be a reminiscing part about people moving that will
Speaker 1: be the same. But I'm realistic. I mean, well we'll
Speaker 1: probably do other things too, and so there will be
Speaker 1: maybe a second or third line of business. Oh what
Speaker 1: could those be? I don't know yet. All right, we
Speaker 1: will have to catch up in twelve years. That sounds
Speaker 1: like a plan. Misha Evans, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining us. Great to have you my pleasure. I appreciate
Speaker 1: you coming over. Hopefully we can we can zooks to
Speaker 1: our next interview. And that's it for this edition of
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Studio. At one point out thanks for joining us.
Speaker 1: This episode is produced by Lauren Ellis, edited by Brian
Speaker 1: Carter Gainer, and executive produced and hosted by Yours truly
Speaker 1: Emily Jay. We'll see you next time.