Zoox, Amazon's self-driving car startupAnnounceZoox will conduct real-world testing of its robotaxi service in Dallas and Phoenix, USA. Initially, Zoox will deploy modified Toyota Highlander SUVs equipped with human safety drivers to build street maps before officially introducing its specially designed autonomous vehicles.
This expansion plan not only allowszooxWith its testing and operations now spanning 10 cities in the United States, the company is ready to meet the challenges of extreme weather and complex road conditions.
Challenging extreme heat and complex road networks: Why Phoenix and Dallas?
For autonomous vehicles that rely on sophisticated sensors and large battery modules, weather and road conditions are always the biggest challenges.
Zoox stated that the two newly selected cities will provide unique testing conditions never before seen in existing operating markets:
• Phoenix:Known for its road network characterized by extreme high temperatures, dust storms, and high vehicle speeds, this will rigorously test the durability of onboard sensors and the thermal management performance of the battery.
• Dallas:It boasts a wide and sprawling urban road design, as well as more varied weather patterns than Zoox's existing operating cities.
To support its large fleet operations, Zoox will also establish new vehicle dispatch centers in these two cities and a brand-new "Command Hub" in Scottsdale, Arizona, specifically responsible for fleet operations, remote guidance intervention, and passenger customer service support.
Amazon invests heavily to compete with Waymo and Tesla.
Since being acquired by Amazon for a hefty $13 billion in 2020, Zoox has made steady progress.
To date, Zoox's self-driving fleet has accumulated over 1 million miles (approximately 1,609,344 kilometers) of driving mileage and served over 300,000 passengers. With the addition of these two new locations, Zoox's operations and testing footprint now spans 10 key U.S. cities, including Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C.
However, competitors in the market have not slowed down.Waymo, a subsidiary of AlphabetTesla has already achieved extremely rapid commercial expansion in many parts of the United States; and the highly talked-about Tesla also launched in parts of Austin, Texas last year.Own self-driving taxi serviceThis battle of autonomous driving, from the living room to the destination, is entering its most intense stage of combat.
The Dual Pull of Regulation and Safety
Despite tech companies continuously testing and iterating their technologies on public roads, the U.S. regulatory framework has clearly lagged behind the pace of these self-driving car rollouts.
In recent years, safety controversies surrounding autonomous vehicles have been rampant. In the past year alone, the United States has seen a series of negative incidents, including self-driving cars hitting children near schools and obstructing emergency vehicles at the scene of a major shooting. Furthermore, data shows that Tesla's self-driving system appears to have a higher accident rate than human drivers in certain situations.
To this end, U.S. regulators are expected to hold a "Self-driving safety forum," in which CEOs of companies such as Waymo, Zoox, and Aurora are expected to attend in person to explain and defend the safety issues that the public is most concerned about.
