Amazon’s recently acquired subsidiary Zoox has unveiled a fully autonomous electric vehicle with no steering wheel, designed as a robotaxi solely with passengers, not drivers, in mind.
Designed and manufactured in the U.S., the company noted its new 11.9-foot-long robotaxi can drive both forward and backward without turning, allowing it to maneuver through compact spaces and change directions without the need to reverse. Passengers sit inside with two benches facing each other, much like one did with stagecoaches.
“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,” Aicha Evans, Zoox’s CEO, said in a statement. “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.”
Accompanying this bi-directional design is a novel airbag system designed to protect all four of its seats. Its cameras, radar and LiDAR help give it a 270-degree field of view from all four corners of the vehicle to eliminate blind spots and 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,” Jesse Levinson, Zoox co-founder and chief technology officer, said in a statement. “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.”
The robotaxi can operate at up to 75 miles per hour with four-wheel steering. With a 133 kilowatt-hour battery, one of the largest available in electric vehicles today, it can run for up to 16 continuous hours on a single charge. The company’s aim is ultimately to build an autonomous robotaxi fleet and ride-hailing service.
Zoox, a startup founded in 2014, was acquired by Amazon in 2020. The company noted its name was inspired by zooxanthellae—mobile single-celled organisms powered by photosynthesis. Zoox is currently testing designs in Las Vegas and San Francisco, as well as in other locations in the Bay Area.
