Zoox reveals the autonomous robotaxi
Here is what we could be looking at for the future of the Taxi business, the Zoox robotaxi. Zoox recently unveiled this electric autonomous robotaxi after having been bought by Amazon mid-2020. Designed for dense and urban environments, its currently being tested in Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Foster City.
“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 Chief Executive Officer.
Here is what the Zoox robotaxi will look like.
With a length of 3.63 metres, it’s incredibly small and it can be since there is no need for a driver. It’s not an ugly sight though with its pebble-like body and ‘X’ shaped wheels. On either side of it are elevator-like doors that reveal the unique interior.
By unique we mean the first car that might see the road with no driver’s seat. Inside the Zoox robotaxi can seat up to four people facing each other. The images revealed show a rather simple design that would have a similar amount of comfort you can expect from a bus. There are cup holders in the seats which is something you won’t see on a bus.
Designed for the city to operate for sixteen hours.
The little vehicle is powered by a 133 kWh battery which can get it up to speeds of 121 km/h and drive for sixteen hours on one charge. That’s quite impressive but Zoox has yet to reveal any range numbers.
Between its small size, bidirectional capabilities and four-wheel steering, this robotaxi is rather manoeuvrable and can fit itself in between very tight spaces. This is aided by the four cameras, radar and LIDAR on each corner that offer a 270-degree field of view on each corner.
The car also has a very impressive amount of safety features, 100 to be exact, that includes a wrap-around airbag system. Zoox claims that this puts their vehicle on par with a five-star crash safety rating for all four seating positions.
It’s obviously going to be a very long time before anything like this reaches our local shores and zips around town. But that isn’t to say it will never happen, and this is likely similar to what we will be seeing.
Source: Zoox
