Another autonomous vehicle company is coming to Houston.
Why it matters: Zoox, Amazon’s robotaxi company, is joining Houston’s growing autonomous vehicle industry, as the city continues to serve as a testing ground for self-driving technology.
Driving the news: Zoox will begin testing in Houston later this month, initially using retrofitted SUVs with safety drivers to map streets and collect data, the company announced Tuesday.
Zoom in: Initial testing will cover Rice Village, the Texas Medical Center, the Galleria area, Memorial Park, Downtown, Midtown and Hyde Park.
- The company plans to eventually test its autonomous robotaxis and open a local depot for charging and maintenance.
What they’re saying: “Houston is our most sprawling market to date,” Zoox said in its announcement, pointing to the city’s “complex service-road networks, unique merging scenarios” and extreme heat, heavy rain and flooding as “rigorous” tests for its technology.
See here for some background. As of a month ago, Zoox was coming to Austin and Dallas. Didn’t take too long for them to come here as well. Apparently we’ll see SUVs with mapping gear on them first, before we see those weird little bus-like Zoox-mobiles. Not in my neighborhood, not yet, anyway. Who’s excited about this? I ask sincerely, I’m curious. Waymo has been the big player so far, as Tesla’s service area is tiny and Nuro isn’t here yet. I’ve finally seen someone get into a Waymo, one of my neighbors who said they liked it a lot. I still can’t tell for the most part if the ones I see driving around have a passenger in them or not. Anyway, more options for this sort of thing if that’s also your sort of thing. Zoox’s press release is here, and Reuters and CultureMap have more.
“unique merging scenarios” LOL. One of the first things I noticed when I moved to Houston in the 70’s was the freeway ramps that merged directly into fast traffic. That and the chemical stink – “the air is greener in Pasadeener”.
Curious about the vehicles themselves. I see a waymo pretty regularly in midtown between 5 and 6 and one time was close enough to see the plate – it was from Connecticut??
Is there something specifically advantageous to registering them elsewhere?
(sorry, windows too tinted and wrong angle to see if passenger)