Amazon’s Zoox completes ‘critical checkpoint’ in robotaxi testing and rollout

Jesse Levinson, Zoox CTO and co-founder, speaks at Amazon re:MARS in Las Vegas this week. (GeekWire Photo / Todd Bishop)

LAS VEGAS — Zoox, the robotaxi company acquired by Amazon for more than $1 billion in 2020, says it has achieved a key milestone in the testing and rollout of its autonomous electric vehicle.

Jesse Levinson, the Zoox co-founder and CTO, told the audience at Amazon’s re:MARS event here Tuesday night that Zoox “recently completed a critical checkpoint that we haven’t talked about publicly yet.”

Specifically, he said, the Zoox vehicle operated “with no one inside, no chase vehicle, and no emergency stop, all on open, private roads with non-Zoox agents, including pedestrians, cyclists, cars and trucks.”

Zoox L5 Fully Autonomous, All-electric Robotaxi. (Zoox Photo)

The vehicle satisfied safety requirements in these tests, which means it “can operate in an unstructured environment at human-plus safety levels,” he said. “And we’re almost ready to do that on public roads.”

We’ve followed up with Zoox for more about what this means for its launch plans.

Zoox unveiled its passenger robotaxi in December 2020, opting to build the vehicle from the ground up rather than adapting an existing vehicle as others have done.

Levinson reiterated the benefits of this approach during his re:MARS talk. The advantages include the ability for the vehicle to operate in either direction, with better visibility for the built-in sensors because they’re not blocked by a hood.

Zoox expanded its testing to Seattle last year, using specially equipped L3 Toyota Highlanders with a safety driver on board. Amazon’s acquisition of Zoox was part of a larger push by the company into robotics, automation and electric vehicles.

PREVIOUSLY: Zoox CTO on the Amazon acquisition, and the environmental promise of self-driving taxis

See also  Amazon partners with Grubhub and adds new Prime food delivery perk

Editor’s Note: Levinson’s title corrected since original post.

Related Posts

Report: Veteran sports broadcaster Al Michaels to call Amazon’s NFL games on Thursdays

Al Michaels in Los Angeles in 2018. (BigStock Photo) Al Michaels, the longtime NFL play-by-play broadcaster, is Amazon’s pick to call “Thursday Night Football” games streaming on…

Seattle Pride drops Amazon sponsorship, cites company’s donations to politicians that support ‘anti-LGBTQIA+’ legislation

Seattle Pride is initiating a process to evaluate its corporate sponsors and will not partner with Amazon for its 2022 pride parade. (Seattle Pride Photo) Seattle Pride…

Amazon opens supply hub for Ukrainian refugees, its largest humanitarian aid facility ever

Amazon is helping to store and distribute supplies to aid Ukrainian refugees in European countries. (Amazon Photo) Amazon is converting warehouse space in Slovakia, previously used to…

Amazon names Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit as the voices of ‘Thursday Night Football’ on Prime

(Amazon Image) Amazon has officially announced that veteran sports play-by-play announcer Al Michaels and college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit will be the broadcast duo for “Thursday Night…

Amazon Games studio head Mike Frazzini is leaving the company

Mike Frazzini. (GeekWire FIle Photo) Mike Frazzini, the head of Amazon Games, is stepping down from his position. Bloomberg reported Frazzini has told staff at Amazon that…

Unlock Venture Partners puts its portfolio in the metaverse

A Los Angeles- and Seattle-based funding agency could also be the first to place its personal portfolio web page in the metaverse. “So far as we all…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *