Amazon runs first-ever autonomous ‘robotaxi’ test with passengers
Amazon is making history in the burgeoning automated ride-hailing space.
The e-tail giant’s autonomous vehicle subsidiary Zoox, which it purchased for a reported $1.2 billion-plus in June 2020, recently conducted the first-ever pilot of a purpose-built self-driving robotaxi on open public roads with no manual controls or human safety driver.
On Saturday, Feb. 11, Zoox employees rode between corporate headquarters locations in Foster City, Calif. on public roads in a fully autonomous Zoox vehicle. Starting in spring 2023, full-time employees will be able to ride in the robotaxi between the company’s Foster City offices during business hours
In July 2022, Zoox became the first company to self-certify a purpose-built, fully autonomous, all-electric passenger vehicle to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). The FMVSS are the federal vehicle safety performance requirements needed to operate on public roads.
At the beginning of February 2023, Zoox received a driverless testing permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to operate its robotaxi autonomously on public roads, both empty and with Zoox employees as passengers.
Prior to this latest pilot, Zoox had been testing its self-driving vehicle prototype in Las Vegas and the San Francisco Bay Area for more than four years. In fall 2021, Zoox began testing its technology in Seattle, to expose the vehicle and its artificial intelligence technology to a fresh set of environmental conditions, including different weather, infrastructure, and by-laws.
Designed and manufactured in the U.S., Zoox is currently the only vehicle to offer bidirectional driving capabilities and four-wheel steering, designed to enable maneuvering through compact spaces and changing directions without the need to reverse.
At almost 12 ft. long, the vehicle features a four-seat, face-to-face symmetrical seating configuration that eliminates the steering wheel and bench seating seen in conventional car designs. The Zoox vehicle also features a 133 kWh battery, designed to operate for up to 16 continuous hours on a single charge.
Amazon takes on the big-name competition
Several other major players operate in the “robotaxi” space. Zoox directly competes with the Waymo self-driving tax service Google is currently piloting in the Phoenix market. Other significant competitors include the Uber Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), recently acquired by Pittsburgh-based self-driving technology company Aurora. Uber ATG had been running pilots of self-driving cars in Dallas, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Toronto, and Washington, D.C.
“Getting to be the world’s first passenger in a robotaxi with no manual controls on open public roads was one of the highlights of my life,” said Jesse Levenson, co-founder and CTO of Zoox, in a corporate blog post “But what made me happiest was seeing the beaming smiles on our team members when they completed their rides. I can’t wait for everyone to experience that magic.”