Soon, Dallas will have more than one ride-hailing robotaxi company from which to choose as it was recently announced that Amazon-owned Zoox will be joining its chief competitor Waymo on the city’s streets.
Zoox, which had already launched pilot projects in eight other cities including Austin, has revealed it will be expanding its test fleet to Phoenix and Dallas. In a blog post, the company explained that “sprawling environments” like Dallas offer an opportunity to test the artificial intelligence within the system against challenging weather and road networks, as these are unlike those in some of the denser areas Zoox already operates in, such as San Francisco.
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The Zoox test fleet is made up of retrofitted Toyota Highlander SUVs and have been on the road since 2017. The company, which was purchased for $1.3 billion in 2020, first maps the streets of a community before initiating autonomous driving. Once testing is finished with the SUVs, Zoox will begin testing the company’s box-shaped, purpose-built robotaxis.
Zoox vehicles will, according to the company, be on the streets of Dallas and Phoenix in centrally located neighborhoods. The public can be assured that a safety driver will also be at the wheel in a position to disengage the AI and assume control of the vehicle if needed.
