Dive Brief:
- Amazon’s Zoox robotaxi unit said in an April 29 email it will begin rolling out its test fleet in the Los Angeles area this week.
- Zoox will bring an undisclosed “small number” of test fleet autonomous vehicles accompanied by human drivers to a limited area of the LA metropolitan region, according to an April 9 press release.
- Los Angeles becomes the sixth city where Zoox is testing its robotaxis, joining the San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, Miami, Seattle and Austin, Texas.
Dive Insight:
Zoox, which was founded in 2014 and acquired by Amazon for $1.3 billion in 2020, has been slow to roll out its robotaxis in comparison to Waymo and General Motors’ former Cruise subsidiary. Waymo launched its first public trials in Phoenix in 2017, and Cruise began serving paying customers in San Francisco in 2022.
Unlike Cruise and Waymo, which created robotaxis by outfitting traditional passenger vehicles with advanced technology, Zoox developed a purpose-built bidirectional electric vehicle for driverless operation. For testing operations, however, Zoox begins by deploying retrofitted Toyota Highlander SUVs with human drivers.
“Before we operate our test fleet or robotaxis in any capacity, we engage with the appropriate local and state officials and regulators,” Zoox said in a press release. The company’s first mission is mapping the area where it plans to operate its vehicles. “While traffic rules are consistent across different locations, there are a variety of driving conditions, potential roadwork, city events, and other map changes we want to learn about before expanding to other neighborhoods,” Zoox said.
Zoox advanced testing in Las Vegas and parts of the San Francisco Bay Area to its purpose-built vehicles and expects to begin taking customers in these vehicles this year in Las Vegas.
