Photo: Zoox
It appears the autonomous vehicle market is about to heat up in a big way as the Amazon-led Zoox company announced they would be testing their AVs on the rainy and unforgiving roads of Seattle, Washington, starting next year. Thus, adding another name to a list of companies jockeying for the title of the first fully functioning AV technology provider.
Zoox also announced plans to build its permanent corporate headquarters in the city of Seattle as it attempts to establish a foothold in the market. The northwestern American city will be the third city to host Zoox AV testing behind San Fransisco and Las Vegas.
Toyota Highlander SUVs will be the go-to vehicles for Zoox during testing, at least for the current moment. Plans are in the works to design and manufacture their own AV, which lacks a steering wheel and pedals, similar to designs shown by other companies like Apple.
Zoox has quite the uphill battle in store for itself as the company attempts to differentiate itself from domestic competition backed by their own multi-billion dollar companies. There’s the Google-backed Waymo, which conducts its own AV tests in the nearby city of Kirkland, Washington.
There’s also Ouster, a LiDAR-based AV company that just announced it’d acquired a Bay Area-based LiDAR maker, Sense Photonics, to double down on its research and development. Then there are the scrappy underdogs at Argo AI based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a group that’s already inked lucrative deals with Ford and Volkswagen to ensure they have all the funding they could ever hope for.
Between those names alone, the AV scene could be on the brink of the same revolution that swept the electric car industry back in the early 2010s. As with the EV scene, expect progress to be slow at first. But once the bugs are worked out, we’ll likely be seeing autonomous taxi services become a part of everyday city life sooner rather than later.
Toyota Highlander SUVs will be the go-to vehicles for Zoox during testing, at least for the current moment. Plans are in the works to design and manufacture their own AV, which lacks a steering wheel and pedals, similar to designs shown by other companies like Apple.
Zoox has quite the uphill battle in store for itself as the company attempts to differentiate itself from domestic competition backed by their own multi-billion dollar companies. There’s the Google-backed Waymo, which conducts its own AV tests in the nearby city of Kirkland, Washington.
There’s also Ouster, a LiDAR-based AV company that just announced it’d acquired a Bay Area-based LiDAR maker, Sense Photonics, to double down on its research and development. Then there are the scrappy underdogs at Argo AI based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a group that’s already inked lucrative deals with Ford and Volkswagen to ensure they have all the funding they could ever hope for.
Between those names alone, the AV scene could be on the brink of the same revolution that swept the electric car industry back in the early 2010s. As with the EV scene, expect progress to be slow at first. But once the bugs are worked out, we’ll likely be seeing autonomous taxi services become a part of everyday city life sooner rather than later.
Google News