Why 2025 will be a pivotal year for Amazon’s Zoox robotaxi division | Real Time Headlines

LAS VEGAS — Expected to be a pivotal year Amazon’s Self-driving car unit Zoox, which plans to expand its operations and commercialize its robotaxi business.

Co-founder and chief technology officer Jesse Levinson said Zoox aims to start offering rides to the public “soon”, expand its operating area and “significantly” add to the fleet of dozens of self-driving vehicles it currently operates. Its self-driving fleet.

“It’s a lot of work, but we’re excited about it,” Levinson said during a 40-minute ride in Las Vegas in one of the company’s robot taxis. “We are very pleased with the progress we have made.”

Zoox’s plans come as some investors have lost enthusiasm for self-driving cars. They’re not alone, like traditional automakers General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Volkswagen The autonomous driving unit was disbanded in recent years.

Zoox — Founded ten years ago, acquired by Amazon US$1.3 billion 2020 – has been testing its dedicated robot axes From early 2023 public roads. The company is currently testing the vehicles, which do not include manual controls such as steering wheels or pedals, in three cities: Las Vegas, San Francisco and Foster City, Calif., where it is headquartered.

Las Vegas is expected to be Zoox’s first commercial market. The company hopes to launch an “early rider program” in Sin City in the coming months before opening it to the public later this year. The company said Zoox will begin testing in San Francisco in November 2024 and will be tested in San Francisco later.

Levinson said Zoox is also considering expanding to Miami. Austin, Texas; and other cities, but the company has not yet announced set timelines for those cities.

“Hopefully by the end of this decade, if you’re in most major cities in the United States, this will be your favorite way to get around,” Levinson said.

Amazon has not publicly disclosed investments in Zoox or other early-stage businesses, saying such investments are seen as emerging long-term initiatives to assist the company and its customers.

The Zoox robotaxi is different from other robotaxis because it does not have a human driver from the start. it’s a different path letterWaymo, the U.S. leader in robotaxis, has transformed traditional vehicles with self-driving capabilities.

Some people describe vehicles like Zoox’s robotaxis as “box” or “toaster”. The doors open from the middle, and rows of seats face each other, leaving no room for driving. Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, also plans to launch such a car model, the Origin. But production was canceled The company faced problems after an accident involving a pedestrian in October 2023.

“I think the cars themselves are very interesting,” said Sam Abuelsamid, an autonomous driving expert and vice president of market research. telemetry insightsspeaking of Zoox. “It’s the right size vehicle, the right form factor.”

On a sunny morning, the Zoox self-driving car performed well while driving around the suburbs of the Las Vegas Strip. It corners the way it should and drives confidently, but not aggressively. There were some questionable choices during the ride, such as choosing to stay in a long line of vehicles rather than maneuver around a large trailer, but overall the vehicle performed as it should.

Levinson said driving with confidence is something the Amazon-backed company has worked on over years of testing. A self-driving car cannot break the law, as many human drivers do, but it also cannot be overly cautious or aggressive, as this could lead to an accident or accident with other human drivers.

GM’s Cruise self-driving car unit was considered the leader over Waymo until the company grounded its robotaxi fleet and announced End of commercial operations Late last year. This follows an incident in October 2023 in which an external investigation found that the company had misled or acted Deceived regulators about the incident.

Providing public rides is just another step in the challenging journey of commercializing self-driving cars. Waymo began offering supervised rides to the public in Arizona in 2017, followed by unsupervised driverless rides in 2019. Cars, which currently provides more than 150,000 paid rides each week.

“From a technology perspective, I think Zoox is moving in the right direction. But what I’m not convinced about is the business model,” Abuelsamid said. “The technology is maturing. It’s still not perfect, but it’s getting better.

“But everyone is trying to figure out the operating model that can actually cover the costs and make that money,” he continued.

The robo-taxi industry proved more challenging than many imagined in the late 2010s, when General Motors, Waymo, Lyft, Uber There are many other companies entering the market with the ambition to commercialize the technology and eliminate human drivers from behind the wheel.

Companies have proven that self-driving cars are possible, but the costs are much higher than initially expected and the payback period is longer than expected. Not to mention several have reported road problems and face uncertainty about regulations and liability.

Others, most notably Teslahas declared its ambitions Robo-taxi businessbut failed to develop self-driving cars or a commercial driverless ride-hailing business.

Meanwhile, Waymo continues to expand. Last year, the company announced an expanded partnership with Uber to bring its robo-taxi service to Austin and Atlanta starting in early 2025, available exclusively on the Uber app.

“They are definitely leaders,” Abu Samid said. “They are the only company operating a true robotaxi service of any type and size today; they are far and away the largest.”