Amazon Subsidiary Zoox Unveils Autonomous Robotaxi

December 16, 2020

The purpose-built vehicle is designed to operate in dense, complicated urban environments, with more than 100 new safety innovations that don’t exist in conventional vehicles.

Zoox, an independent subsidiary of Amazon, shared a look at its fully functional, electric, autonomous vehicle created for dense, urban environments. Designed and manufactured in the U.S., the robotaxi is capable of operating up to 75 miles per hour in both directions.

The reveal, six years in the making, marks a key milestone toward the company’s vision of building an autonomous robotaxi fleet and ride-hailing service designed with passengers in mind.

Zoox is reinventing personal transportation—making the future safer, cleaner, and more enjoyable for all. Zoox created the first vehicle with bi-directional driving capabilities and four-wheel steering, allowing the vehicle to maneuver through compact spaces and change directions without the need to reverse.

“Revealing our functioning and driving vehicle is an exciting milestone in our company’s history and marks an important step on our journey towards deploying an autonomous ride-hailing service,” said Aicha Evans, Zoox Chief Executive Officer. “We are transforming the rider experience to provide superior mobility-as-a-service for cities. And as we see the alarming statistics around carbon emissions and traffic accidents, it’s more important than ever that we build a sustainable, safe solution that allows riders to get from point A to point B.”

Autonomous mobility will provide a paradigm shift in safety—from reactive to proactive. In building a vehicle from the ground up, Zoox engineers have added a fundamental layer of proactive crash prevention, including more than 100 safety innovations that do not exist in conventional cars. These include a novel airbag system for bi-directional vehicles and carriage seating that envelops passengers—the equivalent of five-star crash safety protections for all four seats. The unique sensor architecture combines cameras, radar, and LIDAR to obtain an unrivaled 270-degree field of view from all four corners of the vehicle, eliminating typical blind spots and allowing the vehicle to consistently track objects next to, and behind it—including pedestrians, cyclists, and other road users.

“Safety is the foundation of everything we do. Building a vehicle from the ground-up has given us the opportunity to reimagine passenger safety,” said Jesse Levinson, Zoox Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder. “These include new safety features such as our airbag design, redundant hardware throughout the vehicle, a unique sensor architecture, and a custom AI stack that detects and mitigates potential risks. Our vehicle has passed key Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) crash tests, and we are continuing to look for new, innovative ways to protect our riders and others on the road.”

Zoox was founded in 2014 and was acquired by Amazon in 2020. Zoox is currently testing in Las Vegas, San Francisco, and other Bay Area locations.