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Amazon Zoox Expands Robotaxi Production Across the US

Prime Highlights

  • Amazon’s autonomous car unit Zoox to increase robotaxi output with new California factory.
  • The firm will begin offering public ride services in Las Vegas later this year and roll out into San Francisco.

Key Facts

  • Zoox will scale from testing dozens of vehicles to making hundreds and eventually thousands.
  • U.S. regulatory support could relax rules to speed up autonomous vehicle deployment.

Key Background

Amazon self-driving vehicle unit Zoox will significantly raise robotaxi manufacturing as it approaches the production of commercial service in the US. Zoox will be launching a new campus in the San Francisco Bay area, enabling it to boost rates of manufacturing by hundreds of times from what it currently does today at Fremont, California, a Financial Times article said.

The new complex will allow Zoox to move from careful testing to date such as a few dozen specially constructed autonomous vehicles in a few dozen cities in America to one of mass production. Co-founder Jesse Levinson explained that Zoox intends to begin providing public ride service in Las Vegas by late 2025 and San Francisco subsequently. The cars, being unlike standard automobiles, are all self-driving, bespoke-built, with no steering wheel and pedals, to operate as driverless cars only.

This growth happens in a period of changing thinking within U.S. regulations to allow autonomous vehicles by the new administration, given their efforts to lighten some of the requirements when it comes to safety and reporting for driverless cars. Rule changes presented by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that can potentially eliminate the need for traditional driving controls can lead to mass deployment of vehicles like those that have been manufactured by Zoox.

The wider autonomous vehicle market is extremely competitive, with the likes of Tesla, Alphabet-owned Waymo, and GM-owned Cruise competing for dominance. But this tech-driven sector is also being watched closely. U.S. regulators have opened investigations into safety-related incidents with Cruise, Waymo, and Zoox self-driving systems. In spite of these issues, Zoox’s scaling is a major milestone for Amazon’s mobility ambitions but also for the future of autonomous city transport.

What’s unique about Zoox is its method, which is to design cars from scratch specifically for autonomy. If successful, its technology might transform how cities handle transport, traffic, and mobility services in the next three years.