An autonomous vehicle company acquired this year by Amazon has unveiled a four-person “robo-taxi,” a compact, multidirectional vehicle designed for dense, urban environments.
The carriage-style interior of the vehicle produced by Zoox Inc. has two benches that face each other. There is no steering wheel. It measures just under 12 feet long, about a foot shorter than a standard Mini Cooper.
‘Like most early autonomous vehicles, Zoox’s robotaxi is decked out in safety technology. There’s a crown of six LIDAR pucks up top, as well as multiple radar sensors and cameras. Zoox says this provides a 270-degree field of view at each corner, virtually eliminating blind spots as well as providing redundancy in case a sensor fails. The sensor suite allows the vehicle to see objects up to 150 meters away,’ reports The Verge.
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It is among the first vehicles with bidirectional capabilities and four-wheel steering, allowing for better maneuverability. It has a top speed of 75 miles per hour.
The vehicle is being tested in the company’s base of Foster City, California, as well as Las Vegas and San Francisco, Zoox said Monday.
Zoox, based Foster City in Silicon Valley, was founded in 2014 and acquired by Amazon in June. It operates as an independent subsidiary at Amazon.
Like most early autonomous vehicles, Zoox’s robotaxi is decked out in safety technology. There’s a crown of six LIDAR pucks up top, as well as multiple radar sensors and cameras. Zoox says this provides a 270-degree field of view at each corner, virtually eliminating blind spots as well as providing redundancy in case a sensor fails. The sensor suite allows the vehicle to see objects up to 150 meters away,
