Zoox, an autonomous vehicle business owned by Amazon, said Monday, Feb. 13, that it has begun testing its robotaxis on public roads in California with actual people onboard.
The cars, according to CNBC, can be driven either way without having to back up since they feature four-wheel steering and a bidirectional drive system.
On Sunday, Feb. 12, Zoox said that a test run of one of their cars had been completed with company workers on board. It plans to continue doing tests with the employees and roll out a shuttle service for them sometime this spring.
The Green Light
Executives from Zoox claimed testing had begun after the business gained authorization from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) last week.
Not all of the state's public highways are included in the permit's coverage area. Thus far, the testing has been conducted only on a one-mile public route between two office buildings at Zoox's headquarters in Foster City, California.
All firms testing their cars on public roads in California must report every time their system disengages, or a human driver needs to take over for the autonomous system, generally due to safety or technical difficulties.
In fact, Zoox does not even report these instances to the authorities since it does not consider them disengagements but rather situations where the vehicle requires assistance or direction.
These robotaxis have reached speeds of up to 35 miles per hour. The size of the company's test fleet remains unknown, while corporate officials have said that they have constructed "dozens" of cars, though less than 100.
Zoox's Acquisition
In 2020, Amazon purchased the nine-year-old business, but at the time, it was still being determined how the innovation would be put to use by the retail giant. With the goal of providing autonomous transportation on demand in metropolitan areas, Zoox revealed their electric, custom-built robotaxi in the same year.
Zoox officials remained silent on a teleconference with reporters about when the business plans to roll out its robotaxi service to the public or expand its internal testing beyond its current test route and a small group of employees.
Cruise, GM's driverless subsidiary, has also built a fully driverless shuttle named Origin without a steering wheel or pedals. A year ago, both Cruise and Alphabet's Waymo were given the green light to begin offering their driverless taxi services in California for a fee.
Zoox, in contrast to Cruise, is not requesting a waiver to place its driverless cars on public roads. The Amazon-owned firm claims these vehicles, which lack a steering wheel and other human controls, fulfill Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
