Meet Aicha Evans from Senegal, the CEO of Zoox, a cutting-edge company transforming urban mobility.
Aichatou Sar Evans known professionally as Aicha Evans, is an African-American Chief Executive Officer of Amazon’s self-driving car subsidiary Zoox. In June 2020, Evans led the acquisition of her company by Amazon for US$1.3 billion.
Zoox has developed a self-driving, bidirectional vehicle that’s designed specifically for city life. Its unique, symmetrical design means it doesn’t have traditional features like a steering wheel, pedals, or a driver’s seat. It can drive in either direction without turning around, seating up to four passengers with space for working, sleeping, or socializing while on the move.
Evans was born in Senegal and spent her childhood in Paris. After immigrating to the United States, she studied at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. where she received a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering in 1996. She has held engineering management positions at companies including Rockwell Semiconductor, Conexant, and Skyworks Solutions.
In January 2019, Zoox appointed Aicha Evans as CEO, after her previously being the Chief Strategy Officer at Intel. On June 26, 2020, Amazon and Zoox signed a definitive merger agreement, under which Amazon acquired Zoox as a wholly-owned subsidiary.
Zoox, Inc. is a subsidiary of Amazon developing autonomous vehicles that provide mobility as a service. It is headquartered in Foster City, California and has offices of operations in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle, Washington. Zoox sits in the Amazon Devices & Services organization alongside other Amazon units like Amazon Lab126, Amazon Alexa, and Kuiper Systems.
Zoox was founded in 2014 by Australian artist-designer Tim Kentley-Klay and Jesse Levinson, son of Apple Inc. chairman Arthur D. Levinson, who was developing self-driving technology at Stanford University. The name “Zoox” is a reference to Zooxanthellae, a marine organism that, like the Zoox robo-taxi, depends on renewable energy and is able to maintain a symbiotic relationship with organisms in its surrounding habitat.
Zoox’s mandate is to reinvent personal transportation—making the future safer, cleaner, and more enjoyable for everyone. It’s on-demand autonomous ride-hailing.
Let Zoox handle the traffic, while you enjoy a smooth, relaxing ride in a spacious cabin designed around you.
With Zoox, every seat is the best seat in the house
“No squeezing in behind a driver. No awkward middle seat. Zoox is super-spacious and perfectly symmetrical, so each rider gets the same level of comfort and technology–wherever they sit.”
Evans joined Intel in 2006, and spent 12 years with the firm, specializing in leading wireless engineering projects utilizing technologies like Bluetooth, Wireless LAN, XMM register, and 5G. In 2013, Evans assumed leadership of a communications and devices division with more than 7,000 employees. In 2017, Evans was promoted to Chief Strategy Officer. In a Federal Trade Commission case against Qualcomm, Evans served as a witness alleging unfair business practices and potential anti-trust violations.
In February 2019, Evans joined Zoox as its new CEO. In doing so, she became the first Senegalese-American female CEO of an autonomous vehicle technology company. In June 2020, Evans led the acquisition of her company by Amazon for US$1.3 billion. A Forbes analysis suggests that Evans’ decision to pursue aggressive patent coverage in the mobility space led to Amazon’s interest. Evans will continue to manage the company as a stand-alone business post-acquisition.
Evans serves as a trustee for the Anita Borg Institute for Women & Technology. She was a co-signatory of an open letter written by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group addressing racial intolerance of Chinese Americans in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Her Achievements
Aicha Evans was named to Business Insider’s list of 100 People Transforming Business in the transportation category in 2019. She has also been nominated to the George Washington University Engineering Hall of Fame
Evans was selected for the inaugural 2021 Forbes 50 Over 50; made up of entrepreneurs, leaders, scientists and creators who are over the age of 50.
Using the Zoox app on your mobile device, you can unlock the doors, set your destination, and relax as the car drives you there. There’s no key—everything is managed through the app. The car has no front or back, making it adaptable to driving in either direction.
The innovative design has even caught the attention of international regulators, with many impressed by its advanced features, leading to ongoing investigations to better understand this groundbreaking technology.
Zoox CEO Aicha Evans believes that It’s OK to ‘Take a Little Bit Longer’ in Tech. While other autonomous vehicle companies have raced to get their models on the market — with mixed results — groundbreaking robotaxi company Zoox’s CEO Aicha Evans believes in taking time to get it right.
In her words, “Ours is a vertically integrated, safety-critical product where you’re always as good as your last release,” she explains. “It’s going to take a little bit longer than some people would like, but it’s always going to be like that with disruptive technology.”
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Additional Sources: zoox.com, Media Avatar, Wikipedia
