Zoox, a startup belonging to the Amazon group, unveiled its newest project called 'robotaxi', an autonomous electric car that can replace taxi drivers in the digital age

Zoox, a self-driving electric car company that Amazon bought in June, has finally unveiled its robot taxi after six years of twisted and secretive prototypes. While it broadly resembles other first-generation autonomous vehicles from Silicon Valley automakers and startups, Zoox's robotaxi has some standout features.

Read also

• Work from home: Quality Nexttech offers 130 job openings for IT professionals
• 300 jobs are open at Totvs to work from home in the areas of marketing, IT, HR and much more
• Icebreaker Arktika, the world's largest and most powerful vessel from the fleet of nuclear ships, enters service today in Russia
• MME, ANM and BNDES sign cooperation agreement for the mining sector
• CSN Mineração has vacancies for the city of Congonhas

Amazon's autonomous electric car could threaten taxi drivers' profession?

The "carriage-style" self-driving electric car is a fully autonomous four-wheel vehicle that seats up to four people and looks similar to vehicles created by other companies in space. At just 3,63 feet long, it sits somewhere between the big, boxy Origin robot taxi from Cruise (which is owned by General Motors) and the delivery-focused robot made by automaker Nuro.

To further differentiate it, startup Zoox has spent the last few years working to equip its self-driving electric car with the ability to drive forwards and backwards, and side to side, or “bi-directionally”. Combined with the four-wheel steering functionality, Zoox says its vehicle will be able to handle precise maneuvers such as "tight sidewalk bites" and "tricky inclines". Zoox also claims its vehicle is the first of its kind capable of traveling at up to 75 mph, a possible nod to ambitions of one day putting vehicles on the road.

Amazon points out that the purpose of its project is not to put an end to the profession of taxi drivers, but rather to demonstrate the limits of technology and become a short-distance travel service through apps of sharing.

State-of-the-art technology

Like most early autonomous vehicles, Zoox's robotaxi is equipped with a lot of safety technology. There is a crown of six LiDAR disks on top, as well as various radar sensors and cameras. Zoox points out that this provides a 270-degree field of view in every corner, virtually eliminating blind spots, as well as providing redundancy in the event of a sensor failure. The set of sensors allows the vehicle to see objects up to 150 meters away.

The interior of the vehicle is less technological. The cozy, inward-facing benches (hence the term “carriage-style”) are surrounded by what appears to be textured fabric. The seats also hide what the company says is a radical overhaul of how airbags work. There are cup holders and wireless charging mats between the seats. And the roof has a starry sky pattern, the kind commonly seen on luxury vehicles like the Rolls Royce Ghost. A small touchscreen in each seat is the most advanced technology found inside the vehicle.

Zoox's Robotáxi arrives on the market equipped with a 133 kWh battery, more powerful than those equipped in Tesla's electric cars

The robotaxi is powered by a 133 kWh battery, which is slightly larger than the batteries currently powering Tesla's strongest vehicles. The company highlights that the batteries will have 16 hours of continuous use.    

That should be enough to help Zoox and Amazon start to reach their collective goal of creating an autonomous carpooling service. It's a goal Zoox has pursued since it was founded in 2014, and pursued it in almost theatrical secrecy before stumbling into a public spat with its co-founder and CEO in 2018, when he was eventually ousted. The company is testing prototypes of its self-driving vehicle in San Francisco and Foster City, Calif., as well as Las Vegas, Nevada.