Zoox, amazon's self-driving unit, is bringing its autonomous vehicles to more cities.
The autonomous driving technology company Announced Wednesday plans to begin testing in Austin and Miami this summer. The two cities are Zoox's fourth and fifth test cities, following Las Vegas, San Francisco and Seattle.
The news comes as federal regulators increase their scrutiny of self-driving car companies like Waymo and Zoox, which are under investigation over safety concerns. Earlier this week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requested more information from Zoox to assist in its investigation into the rear-end crash risks posed by unexpected braking.
That increased scrutiny, fueled in part by a Cruise incident last year involving a pedestrian collision, could be part of the reason Zoox has been taking a slow and steady approach to testing and scaling.
A Zoox spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company began mapping cities this spring. Over the summer, Zoox will deploy its retrofitted Toyota Highlander test fleet with safety drivers behind the wheel “in small areas near shopping and entertainment districts.” The company did not say how many test vehicles it would send to each city.
Zoox also did not say when it intends to eliminate the safety driver or begin commercial operations in Austin or Miami. Rather, the company is focused on using different urban environments to perfect its autonomous system. For example, Austin has horizontal traffic lights, traffic lights hanging from wires, railroad crossings, and epic thunderstorms. Miami's traffic lights are suspended diagonally across intersections and the city is apparently plagued by impatient drivers afflicted by road rage.
Zoox's testing protocol has two parts: the company identifies specific pre-planned routes that offer challenging driving features and scenarios, while also randomly testing certain point-to-point routes within a defined geofence.
“We always start with a focused testing area, expanding methodically as our ai becomes more familiar with each city's unique conditions,” the blog post reads.
Plans for testing in Austin and Miami come as Zoox prepares for its first commercial launch. Zoox has a permission testing its driverless safety vehicles in parts of San Francisco and Foster City, and targeting that market as one of its first launch cities along with Las Vegas.
Zoox did not respond to TechCrunch's request for a timeline for commercial deployment or to provide definitions of the geofenced areas.
Zoox has teamed up with images of its specially designed robotaxi, that cute breadbox-shaped vehicle without a steering wheel or pedals and with side doors that open to admit passengers. The company will not test those vehicles on public roads in Austin or Miami for the time being. Zoox previously said it has begun limited testing of fully autonomous robotaxis on public roads in Las Vegas and San Francisco and plans to begin offering rides to passengers this year. In February, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) granted Zoox its driverless AV pilot permit, which allows the company to transport members of the public for free within the boundaries of its approved domain in Foster City. Zoox has not confirmed whether it has started doing so.
The news of Zoox's expansion comes as the robotaxi space gets a second wind. Or maybe it's a third wind. GM's Cruise has also recently announced plans to test their robotaxis in Dallas and Phoenix. Alphabet's Waymo earlier this year began offering driverless rides to employees in Austin in preparation for a planned commercial launch this year, and the company also recently announced plans to begin robotaxi testing in Atlanta.
