Amazon’s self-driving subsidiary Zoox said Monday it will begin testing its autonomous vehicles in Dallas and Phoenix. The company will initially deploy Toyota Highlander SUVs with human safety drivers to map new cities before rolling out its robotaxis.
Zoox says these two cities will provide an opportunity to test the performance of its sensors and batteries in unique conditions that its cars have not yet encountered in existing markets. Phoenix has extreme heat, dust and fast roads, while Dallas has wider roads and diverse weather than other cities in which Zoox operates. The company is also opening new depots in both cities and in Scottsdale, Arizona that will handle fleet operations, remote guidance and rider assistance.
The move brings Zoox’s footprint (between real and test markets) to 10 US cities. Its other areas of operation are Las Vegas, San Francisco, Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Washington, DC. Amazon is a self-driving startup valued at $1.3 billion in 2020 and is constantly expanding its reach, with the company saying its fleet has driven more than one million autonomous miles and served more than 300,000 riders to date.
Zoox’s expansion comes at a time when competition in the robotaxi market has intensified. Alphabet-owned Waymo continues to roll it out across the US, while Tesla’s robotaxis launched last year, though they’re currently limited to parts of Austin, Texas. US regulators are scheduled to hold a meeting on Tuesday, which the CEOs of Waymo, Zoox and Aurora are expected to attend.
As companies have been testing and iterating the technology on public roads, the regulatory framework has held back the rapid rollout of these vehicles. Just last year, autonomous vehicles responded to a mass shooting near a school and, at least in the case of Tesla, appeared to be more than human drivers.
<a href