Amazon’s Zoox announced on Monday that it successfully tested robotaxi with employees as passengers. Their robotaxi fleet is now closer to launching as commercial services for the general public. The testing was done on a public road between two Zoox buildings that are a mile apart at its headquarters in California. In addition to the testing, the no-cost employee shuttle service was also launched by the company which is going to refine its technology.
The Chief Executive Aicha Evans said, “Putting the vehicle on (an) open public road and validating our approach to all of the different requirements, including regulatory, is a big step and we would not have done it unless internally we were already looking at the line of sight for going commercial.” The timeline for the commercial launch was not provided as the company still needs additional government clearances. The robotaxi technology is being developed by various other companies including General Motors Cruise Unit and Alphabet’s Waymo.
Zoox’s robotaxi is built as a fully autonomous vehicle from scratch rather than retrofitting existing cars for self-driving – comes without a steering wheel or pedals and has room for four passengers, with two facing each other. Online retailer Amazon, which has been aggressively expanding into self-driving technology, bought Zoox for $1.3 billion in 2020.
Growth
Amazon, which is aggressively expanding into self-driving technology, announced on June 26 it had agreed to acquire the Silicon Valley company, which was founded on an ambitious effort to design a fully autonomous vehicle from scratch rather than retrofitting existing cars for self-driving. Zoox had been valued at $3.2 billion in 2018, according to data from PitchBook. The Amazon deal documents show Zoox was burning more than $30 million each month in early 2020 and projected it would run out of cash by July. Amazon had the option to lend Zoox $30 million on signing the agreement in June, with the option for further loans before the deal closes. The exclusive agreement between Zoox and Amazon came after a third party entered. Zoox co-founder Jesse Levinson will receive 40% of his deal compensation over three years rather than at the closing.
Rapid interest highest and weak consumer demand sparked fears of a global recession. It led companies including automakers and tech giants to trim their workforces and claw back costs. Zoox’s tech chief, Jesse Levinson, said the company has been prudent about its growth but was still on track to reach 2,500 employees this year, up from just under 2,000 employees at the beginning of the year.
