DRIVERLESS CARS
AMAZON BRINGING ‘ROBOTAXI’ ROAD TEST TO TWO NEW CITIES
Amazon is geographically expand- ing its pilot of an autonomous ride-hailing platform. The e-tail giant’s autonomous vehicle sub- sidiary Zoox, which it purchased for a reported $1.2 billion-plus in June 2020, is building on its successful 2023 pilot of a self-driving robotaxi on open public roads in Foster City, California, with no manual controls or human safety driver. Since that initial pilot, Zoox has continued testing and developing its robotaxi technology in Foster City as well as in Las Vegas. As it prepares to offer autonomous robotaxi rides to consumers later in 2024, Zoox will soon begin testing in two new U.S. markets: Austin and Miami, marking the fourth and fifth public testing locations for Zoox. The company started in its home city of San Francisco in 2018, expanded testing to Las Vegas in 2019, and then moved to Seattle in 2021. This latest expansion - to a new coast, and two new states - marks a significant step forward. After conducting a brief mapping mission, Zoox says it will deploy its retrofitted Toyota Highlander test fleet, with safety drivers, in small areas near the business and enter- tainment districts of the two cities. To run a robotaxi road test, Zoox identifies specific pre-planned routes that offer the most challenging driving features and scenarios, while also testing randomly selected point-to-point routes within a defined geofence. The company always starts with a focused testing area, expanding methodically as its AI gets more familiar with the unique conditions
PHTM JULY 2024
in each city. As Zoox continues growing its pilot, it has also been expanding its Las Vegas geofence while in- creasing automated vehicles’ driving speeds and ability to operate in light rain and at night.
According to Zoox, both of its new pilot cities offer unique test conditions. Austin has horizontal traffic lights, traffic lights hanging on wires, railway crossings, and thunderstorms, while Miami has traffic lights that are suspended diagonally across intersections. Zoox is not yet deploying its purpose-built robotaxi or offering public rides in Austin or Miami. Target cities for its first commercial markets remain Las Vegas and San Francisco. However, the company says it is exploring several cities for future commercial offerings after initial launch.
WAYMO ISSUES ANOTHER RECALL AFTER DRIVERLESS TAXI CRASH
Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo is report- edly pulling in its robotaxis for software updates after one of its vehicles hit a telephone pole. The incident happened in Phoenix, Arizona in May, when the Jaguar I- Pace driverless EV was on its way to pick up a passenger. It hit the pole at just 8mph, causing slight damage to the car but no injuries. The pole was apparently not mounted on the curb but at street level behind yellow lines, which the vehicle’s software seemingly wasn’t programmed to respond to. Waymo has already filed a notice with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NHTSA, explaining that its 672 vehicles will be recalled. The new update will address the issue.. There will now be increased scrutiny on the firm and its
technologies given this is the second recall in 2024. The first happened when two of Waymo’s taxis hit the same pickup truck while it was being towed in Phoenix in December. Waymo later said the truck was being towed improperly, crossing a traffic lane. It was hit by one robotaxi, but the truck didn’t stop, and then it was hit by another. The NHTSA’ opened an investi- gation into Waymo’s cars in May. That was in response not just to the bangs and scrapes with the pickup truck but to a series of 22 separate incidents. Seventeen of them involved impacts with stationary objects, and other incidents were
simple traffic
violations, such as reversing in one- way areas or driving into oncoming traffic in the other lane.
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