James Cox, the former Uber Pool chief, has found a new way to influence the future of ride-sharing, this time through autonomous vehicles. On Wednesday, his startup The Routing Company announced a deal with Amazon-owned Zoox, marking its first major entry into the robotaxi space.
Zoox will purchase a nonexclusive license for The Routing Company’s routing technology and integrate five of its engineers to enhance the scalability of its robotaxi fleet. Cox will serve as a senior adviser to Zoox’s chief product officer, Mike White, while continuing as CEO of The Routing Company. Any new innovations from the engineers inside Zoox will remain Zoox’s property. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The Routing Company has quietly built traction over the past five years, powering 3 million trips across 13 U.S. states and five countries by helping transit agencies optimize ride-matching. The Zoox partnership marks a shift toward faster-moving commercial deployment, with Zoox planning to expand its early rider program in San Francisco and launch paid public rides in Las Vegas later this year.
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The collaboration reflects a wider industry trend of robotaxi firms outsourcing critical tech to accelerate development. Waymo has recently partnered with Uber and Avis, while delivery startup Nuro turned to Foretellix to streamline simulation work.
Cox believes advanced routing is the missing piece in large-scale robotaxi adoption. “Imagine playing chess in four dimensions, with the board melting and every move costing money, and you have to solve it in real time,” he told TechCrunch. “Any player that doesn’t account for all that chaos will always struggle.”
By pairing its expertise with Zoox’s fleet, The Routing Company hopes to unlock faster, more efficient scaling for autonomous ride-hailing services.
