Zoox, the self-driving company owned by Amazon, is heading to the east coast. The company is expanding its testing fleet to Washington, DC, bringing the total number of areas in which it operates to eight.
To start, Zoox will deploy a handful of retrofitted Toyota Highlanders with safety drivers “in the heart of Washington, DC,” Zoox said in a Tuesday blog post. That testing fleet will manually map a specific area before moving onto autonomous testing, which is slated for later this year.
Watch this: This Robotaxi Looks and Drives Like No Car You’ve Ever Seen Before
“As our first Mid-Atlantic testing location, DC presents a complex and unique street layout, along with seasonal weather challenges,” Zoox’s blog post reads. “The city’s street network includes many traffic circles, diagonal avenues and high pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Additionally, DC’s mix of humid summers, occasional snowfall and unpredictable rainfall creates diverse weather conditions for testing driving performance.”
Zoox says that Washington, DC, is “among the largest ride-hailing markets in the US.” Waymo, the self-driving arm of Google’s parent company Alphabet, has also been testing its autonomous vehicle tech there and aims to start offering rides in DC next year.
Zoox’s robotaxis have opened up to public riders in Las Vegas.
From testing fleet to final robotaxi
Along with Washington, DC, Zoox operates its testing fleet in parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, Seattle, Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Austin, Texas. Those test vehicles are a stepping stone to a final, consumer-facing ride, which doesn’t have a driver’s seat, steering wheel or pedals. I got to take an early test ride in one of Zoox’s “purpose-built” robotaxis last year, and as unique as the vehicle design is, it feels like a surprisingly normal journey.
Earlier this month, Zoox opened up rides to the general public aboard its boxy robotaxis in Las Vegas. It also introduced a waitlist in its app for anyone who wants to climb aboard in San Francisco whenever that option becomes available.
It’s unclear if or when people will be able to hitch a Zoox ride in the other cities in which its testing fleet operates. But the company is clearly preparing to level up its robotaxi deployment, since it recently opened up a new manufacturing facility that can crank out around 10,000 robotaxis a year.