Why Do Many Self-Driving Cars Look Like Toasters on Wheels?

Welcome to the future: Step inside this toaster. On Monday, the autonomous vehicle company Zoox--acquired by Amazon over the summer for a reported $1.2 billion--rolled out its robotaxi. The design, which has been in development for six years, may look familiar. Almost every autonomous vehicle concept revealed over the past few years--by carmakers, engineers, ride-hailers, and startups--has been a neat, rectangular box. In this case, form equals function.