Zoox has moved closer to becoming one of the most unusual robotaxi companies on American roads because it is not just trying to remove the driver. The Amazon-owned company has received a key US regulatory exemption that allows it to operate its purpose-built autonomous vehicles commercially, according to TechCrunch and The Verge. The decision clears Zoox to begin charging for rides in vehicles designed from the ground up for autonomy, rather than retrofitted from a normal passenger car. Waymo, Tesla, Baidu, Lyft partners and most other autonomous driving projects still work with vehicles that look familiar, even when the software is doing the driving. Zoox has built a small, symmetrical robotaxi with inward-facing seats and no manual driving controls.