Amazon's Zoox robotaxi has no steering wheel and no pedals. I rode one down the Las Vegas Strip. Here's how it sees, how it decides, and who's to blame if it goes wrong.
The doors slid open and there was no driver's seat. Just four seats facing each other, a screen and a help button. Then it pulled out into Las Vegas traffic.
## Built for robots
Zoox, owned by Amazon, built its vehicle from scratch. It has no front or back and can drive either way, and all four wheels steer.
## Three ways of seeing
Cameras see colours like traffic lights. Lidar uses lasers to build a 3D picture. Radar uses radio waves that work in rain and dark. If one gets confused, the others check.
## The hard part
Many times a second the computer guesses what everyone nearby will do next. But if it crashes, who is responsible - the company, the programmers or the city? Countries are still writing those laws.