Get ready to see more of these weird vehicles in certain select cities.
Amazon’s Zoox unit has won U.S. approval for limited commercial deployment of its novel steering-wheel-free robotaxis, a first for the autonomous ride industry, the U.S. auto safety agency said on Thursday.
Zoox said that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s decision gives the company federal approval to begin charging for rides, and that it will soon begin charging for service, first in Las Vegas, with additional markets to follow as it completes various state requirements.
The exemption granted by the agency from federal rules requiring human controls, first reported by Reuters, marks a milestone for companies developing robotaxis from the ground up, rather than modifying conventional cars under safety regulations written long before self-driving technology emerged.
Along with Zoox, whose electric carriage-style vehicle has two rows of inward-facing seats and a top speed of 75 miles (120 km) per hour, others such as Tesla and Alphabet’s Waymo are racing to expand autonomous ride-hailing services in the United States.
NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison told Reuters that Zoox had received clearance to commercially deploy up to 2,500 vehicles in each of the next two years.
Zoox currently carries passengers in parts of Las Vegas and San Francisco as part of testing. The exemption would allow Zoox to charge them fees, subject to state and local approvals.
The agency said it determined the vehicle is as safe as an equivalent vehicle meeting federal motor vehicle safety standards that are being waived. Zoox cannot sell any of the vehicles to the public.
“We can say pretty clearly that the systems in place on the Zoox exceed the equivalent performance requirements of a compliant vehicle,” Morrison said in an interview. “But we still want to make sure that the automated driving system will operate appropriately.”
As part of the exemption, NHTSA is placing additional reporting requirements on Zoox for issues such as crashes or stopping inappropriately on roads, and the regulatory agency will adjust the conditions based on how the vehicles behave.
“We have the ability to pull the exemption if we see major safety issues,” Morrison said.
All remote operators must be located in the United States, NHTSA said, and Zoox must publish maps of areas indicating where the vehicles are operating.
Morrison said NHTSA expects to develop the first federal safety standards for automated driving systems by the end of the Trump administration. It is also proposing to overhaul some existing rules written with human drivers in mind such as requiring brake pedals and rear-view mirrors.
See here for the background. Zoox is coming to Dallas and Austin, though at this time Amazon is just seeking approval to charge fares in Nevada and California. I don’t know if these vehicles with no steering wheels or gas and brake pedals present greater challenges for law enforcement than other robotaxis do, but 1) I hope Amazon is better at providing training and documentation than Google/Waymo has been, and 2) it’s just a matter of time before those other robotaxis make similar design and engineering choices. I’m sure it’s also just a matter of time before they show up in Houston, and as weird as those Waymos look, these will be next level. CNBC and Engadget have more.
more cars without drivers = more traffic
More cars with or without drivers = more traffic.