Amazon-owned self driving car start up Zoox has unveiled its new autonomous robotaxi, which serves as a direct rival to the Cruise Origin robotaxi that General Motors unveiled in January.
The Zoox robotaxi is smaller than the Cruise Origin, but serves the exact same purpose. The company hopes to one day deploy the autonomous robotaxi on public roads to create a new driverless ride-hailing service to compete with Uber and Lyft, a model that has been touted as the future of urban transportation by many in the industry.
Power in the Zoox robotaxi comes from a 133 kWh battery pack, which has enough juice for 16 hours of continuous operation. The top speed is 75 mph, a potential sign that Zoox has engineered the vehicle with highway driving in mind. The interior, meanwhile, features two inward-facing bench seats with cupholders and wireless phone charging mats between each of the seats. A screen mounted on the sides of the seat gives each passenger easy access to the climate and audio controls and also allows them to track their trip in real time.
One way the Zoox robotaxi differs from Cruise Origin is with regard to its steering system. The Zoox vehicle has individual wheel motors and bi-directional and four-wheel steering, allowing it to make sharp turns and other complex maneuvers that may be beneficial in tight city centers.
Zoox is currently testing its new robotaxi at its headquarters in Foster City, California and in San Francisco and Las Vegas. The company did not say when it plans to launch the autonomous ride hailing service.
Amazon purchased Zoox in June in a deal purported to be worth roughly $1 billion. At the time, Amazon Global Consumer CEO Jeff Wilke claimed Zoox is “working to imagine, invent, and design a world-class autonomous ride-hailing experience,” and said the company is “excited to help the talented Zoox team to bring their vision to reality in the years ahead.”
The Cruise Origin may be on track to beat the Zoox robotaxi to market. GM has been developing its autonomous hardware array and software on a fleet of Chevy Bolt EV prototypes in San Francisco for a few years now and plans to put the Origin into production by late 2022. It recently began deploying test vehicles without operators behind the wheel on public roads in San Francisco, as well.
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Comments
Top speed 75? This POS looks like it would tip over if a good gust of wind came along.
It’s a taxi. If it somehow ever gets produced, it will never leave city streets anyway.
calm down tigger, it’s an ev with huge 133 KW battery and its electric motors in the wheels so it has extremely low center of gravity it’s almost impossible to tip over that thing also tell me how many times seen a taxi cab go over 75 miles other than carjack incidents. It is made for urban environment and provide creature comfort ,it doesn’t have aerodynamics to go over 75 anyway.
Weird choice to have the seats protruding into the doorway. The Cruise Origin has more interior volume and appears to be more ADA friendly.
This thing looks cramped. Who would want to share a ride with a complete stranger anyway?
Fenderless tires and no bumpers?? That wouldn’t be safe even for parking lot duty. I think this will be required to undergo some serious design changes if it is intended for roadway use.
Upon closer inspection it does appear there are skin-tight wheel shrouds covering the upper portion of the tires (as depicted they don’t look too effective). I’m still curious about the bumpers. Perhaps the cabin houses everything needed for occupant safety but it doesn’t look like it would take much to render this thing inoperable (seems to leave the fenders/wheels/tires/steering/drive-unit vulnerable to damage from the slightest of impacts).
I would like the GM Cruise Origin to be a fantastic success. The Origin will have competitors such as Zoox robotaxi as is covered above.
I like the roomier 6 seater Origin. I suspect mobility companies will prefer to have the Origin as their main fleet vehicle rather than the 4 seater Zoox robotaxi.
Eventually, when using a robotaxi, expect to typically share with one or two others. Travel in full robotaxis is likely to be mostly confined to rush hours. If you will hate sharing a robotaxi, expect to pay a premium to travel in robotaxi alone.
Why can’t they have the seats forward facing? People are uncomfortable facing strangers at such close distance. Look at what happens in elevators.