Amazon-owned company Zoox today unveiled Robotaxi. It is a fully functional, electric, autonomous vehicle designed for the urban traffic environment. Basically, it is an interesting and not very pretty "box" on wheels, 3,630 mm long and 1,936 mm high, which is also why it does not take up much space on city streets. The fact that it is not a science fiction project, but rather a product that wants to be on the streets of the world's metropolises very soon, excites us.
The vehicle is equipped with a unique sensor camera architecture, radar and Lidar depth sensor and has a 133 kWh battery for great autonomy. However, the driver is fully autonomous: in other words, it does not need a driver.
Zooxov The "self-propelled" taxi of compact dimensions and symmetrical design has large sliding doors on the sides for the entry of passengers, and it also has a high-tech light signaling system with which it "communicates" with other road users, indicating what it will do next.
Despite its small size, the Zoox Robotaxi has a spacious interior for four passengers sitting on two benches. Since the vehicle is autonomous, there are no steering wheels and traditional controls.
The company hasn't revealed many details about the cabin. But the car is full of details, as it has an illuminated ceiling that imitates the stars, just like a luxury Rolls-Royce. Passengers have access to wireless smartphone chargers and touch-sensitive infotainment systems that provide audio control and destination information.
The company confirmed that their autonomous taxi has a battery with 133 kWh, which will allow it to operate continuously for up to 16 hours, the maximum speed of the vehicle will be 121 km/h, which fills us with hope that the company is going in the right direction. Namely, many autonomous vehicles seen so far move at a snail's pace.
Interestingly, the Zoox has all-wheel drive and two-way driving to make it even more agile in urban conditions.
On the technology side, Robotaxi is equipped with a unique sensor architecture of cameras, classic radar and Lidar depth sensor, which gives it an unrivaled 270-degree field of view. This completely eliminates classic "blind spots" and allows the vehicle to consistently track objects next to and behind it, including pedestrians, cyclists and other road users.
The company emphasized that Zoox can "see" more than 150 meters in all directions and also behind bends. Given that people are still wary of autonomous driving technology, it's no surprise that Zoox has put safety at the heart of the whole story.
Robotaxi has more than 100 safety innovations not yet present in conventional cars, including "redundant" hardware and a special airbag designed for special use in two-way vehicles. The company hasn't gone into full details yet, but it does indicate that the airbags will wrap around both seats for protection, regardless of which direction the car is moving.
There's no word yet on when we can expect Zoox to hit the streets of the world's biggest cities, but CEO Aicha Evans said the launch of Zoox is an exciting milestone for the company and an important step in their journey to roll out autonomous car-sharing services.
It's also a big step forward for Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, who has invested more than $1 billion in the company's startup with the hope of creating an autonomous fleet to rival Google's Waymo autonomous robot taxi and having the ability to incorporate autonomous technology. to its delivery fleet of Amazon vehicles.
Now it's Elon Musk's turn, who last year announced a million autonomous robotaxis on the roads by the end of this year, which again turned out to be too ambitious a statement. But who knows, maybe by the end of the year he will surprise us with something interesting, extremely interesting. This is never impossible with Musk!
