Zoox Self Driving Taxi

Amazon.com Inc.’s Zoox unit has pulled back the curtains on a homegrown self-driving taxi that can cover up to 75m/h (10 km/h) and drive more than half a day on a single battery charge.

The self-driving taxi (pictured) debuted by Zoox this morning is about 12 feet (3.65 metres) long, has no steering wheel and can seat four passengers. A specially developed airbag system is attached to each seat. Under the hood, an artificial intelligence driving system pilots the taxi with the help of road data collected by lidar sensors, radars and cameras placed on the vehicle’s exterior.

Zoox says the vehicle is wellsuited to operating in dense urban environments thanks to a four-wheel steering capability that allows it to change direction without turning around when navigating compact spaces. It also helps that the taxi is only 12 feet long, which the Amazon unit says represents “one of the smallest footprints in the automotive industry.” 

Zoox is currently testing the vehicle in Foster City as well as San Francisco and Las Vegas. The unit’s announcement of the self-driving taxi states that it’s working to enable “rider-focused deployment of the Zoox vision for urban mobility,” suggesting it may eventually seek to make its taxis available to consumers.

​More in our December 2020 / January 2021 Edition here.