Amazon’s Zoox unveils self-driving taxi

  • December 21, 2020
  • William Payne

Amazon self-driving subsidiary Zoox has unveiled its first production-ready vehicle, an autonomous taxi. It could be set to become Amazon’s first self-driving taxi as the company steps up its move into self-driving and electric vehicle technologies. The new vehicle has a top speed of 75 miles an hour, and could be used on highways.

The new car is ‘bi-directional’, meaning it can move forward, backwards, and side to side. It has four-wheel steering, and can perform precise manoeuvres such as u-turns.

The new vehicle has a 133kWh battery pack, which the company says should last for 16 hours of use. The battery pack is larger than those in Tesla’s current high endurance vehicles.

The company has already carried out a programme of testing prototypes of its vehicle in California and Nevada.

Amazon bought Zoox in July this year. It has also invested in electric delivery van start-up Rivian and self driving vehicle technology specialist Aurora.