Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) investments in self-driving cars are starting to bear fruits. The company’s self-driving unit Zoox has unveiled a fully driverless electric vehicle. The carriage-style car is built for ride sharing. The carriage style can carry up to 4-passengers.
Zoox Self Driving Robotaxi
The self-driving robotaxi share’s a number of features with other self-driving cars unveiled by the likes of Alphabet’s Waymo and Tesla. For starters, it comes with bi-directional driving capabilities. It also features a four-wheel steering which enables it to change direction without reversing.
Zoox installed an array of cameras for navigation as well as radar and LiDAR sensors on all corners, conversely giving the car a 270-degree field of view on the road. An airbag system is also fitted on all four seats. The car does not come with any, manual controls such as pedals or steering wheels.
On a single charge, the Zoox robotaxi can run up to 16-hours clocking high speeds of 75-miles per hour. Zoox is currently testing the carriage style car in Las Vegas, Foster City, and San Francisco in California. Given that the robotaxi is designed for ride hailing services, Zoox intends to launch an app-based ride sharing service.
While the self-driving car is not ready for commercial use, it marks an important milestone in Amazon’s ambitions in the burgeoning self-driving car spectacle. The tech giant acquired the six year old startup in June.
Amazon Autonomous Cars Use
Amazon founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, has always expressed enthusiasm around the auto industry, which explains the investment in Zoox. The e-commerce giant has already started using self-driving vehicles to haul some cargo affirming, how autonomous cars are at the heart of its long term plans and operations.
In the long run, self-driving cars could be used to power Amazon’s vast logistics network as the company looks to enhance same day delivery. Such cars should allow the e-commerce giant to make last mile delivery cheaper and faster.