Self-Driving Startup Zoox Names Intel Veteran Aicha Evans as New CEO
Zoox appoints former Intel executive Aicha Evans as its new CEO to guide the company through its next stage of growth and scaling. The hire follows the sudden departure of co-founder Tim Kentley-Klay last August.
Self-driving car startup Zoox appoints Aicha Evans, Intel's former chief strategy officer, as its new CEO and board member. Co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson states that the board seeks someone with extensive executive and operational experience to scale the company through its next stage. Evans brings 12 years of Intel leadership experience, including managing a 7,000-person engineering team and guiding the tech giant's transition to a data-centric business.
Evans expresses enthusiasm about challenging the status quo with a mobility system built entirely from the ground up for a fully autonomous future. She praises Zoox for setting itself apart from entrenched players in the autonomous vehicle industry. Levinson describes the search for a leader with the right mix of creativity and operational expertise as a complex task, making Evans a highly exciting addition to the startup.
Alongside this leadership change, Zoox receives a permit from the California Public Utilities Commission to participate in the state’s Autonomous Vehicle Passenger Service pilot. This allows the company to give rides to non-employees during the development phase, provided a safety driver remains behind the wheel and no fares are charged. Zoox maintains its long-term goal of publicly deploying a fleet of fully autonomous, all-electric vehicles for a proprietary ride-hailing service by 2020.