Aicha Evans

A Corporate Background Made This CEO the Perfect Leader for a Groundbreaking Robotaxi Startup

Aicha Evans was the Chief Strategist at Intel and had spent her entire career working at semiconductor companies when she was tapped to take over at a self-driving car startup Zoox in 2019. Her decades of corporate experience gave her the discipline necessary to get the company’s twofold mission off the ground: creating a smartphone-based robotaxi service as well as the autonomous, battery-electric vehicles to supply it. The first African American woman CEO of an autonomous vehicle (AV) company, she’s already succeeded where competitors have floundered in a volatile industry. In 2020, Amazon bought Zoox for more than $1 billion and in 2023, Zoox became the first company to operate a purpose-built robotaxi on public roads. In the same year, the company’s headcount increased by 16%. Recently, Zoox announced a new series of achievements for its robotaxi: driving longer distances, at higher speeds, with required lane changes, in light rain, and at night.

By Audrey Goodson Kingo