Steering wheel-free: Amazon's Zoox autonomous cab launches in Las Vegas
Free and without a steering wheel: Zoox, an Amazon company, is launching its autonomous driving service with specially developed vehicles in Las Vegas.
Autonomous cab from Zoox in Las Vegas.
(Image: Zoox)
Amazon's robotaxi service, Zoox, has launched in Las Vegas. This makes it the first robotaxi company whose vehicles operate without a steering wheel. Zoox is initially offering its service free of charge via its app. Zoox hopes to raise awareness of the service and gather valuable feedback.
The autonomous vehicles take a maximum of four passengers and will initially drive to five highly frequented locations in the player city, including the hotels “The Luxor,” "Resorts World," and “New York-New York.”
Users therefore have to do without the flexibility of normal cabs: the autonomously driving cars only drive to predetermined destinations and do not make any stops. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has granted an exemption for use without a steering wheel. This is because, unlike competitors such as Tesla or Waymo, which use converted production vehicles with steering wheels, Zoox uses vehicles developed in-house and designed for this purpose. Passengers cannot intervene in case of doubt.
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Zoox develops its own vehicles
With a combination of 18 cameras, ten radar sensors, and eight lidar (light detection and ranging) sensors, the cabs navigate their way through traffic, which sets them apart from Tesla's vehicles, for example, which only have eight cameras and no radar or lidar systems. Only Waymo uses more, with eight cameras, six radar, and five lidar sensors.
Zoox was founded back in 2014 and began testing on the streets of San Francisco in 2018. Regular operations are due to start there soon. Other planned cities include Austin and Miami. Zoox has been part of the Amazon Group since 2020.
(aki)
