Last year, Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company Zoox began testing its vehicles on California’s roads — specifically, the streets near its Foster City headquarters. The scope of these tests was relatively modest; Zoox ran an employee shuttle using its own technology. At the time, CEO Aicha Evans pointed out that Zoox was “the first company to operate a purpose-built robotaxi with passengers on open public roads in California.”
More than a year after that milestone — and following successful testing in Las Vegas — Zoox has set its sights on a more ambitious location.
Electrek’s Scooter Doll reports that Zoox has expanded its testing, and has brought its vehicles to San Francisco with an eye towards offering taxi service there in the not-so-distant future. For now, the company is focusing its testing in the SoMa district. Zoox employees can ride in the vehicles, but the testing is not open to the public.
“Since 2017, our test fleet has autonomously navigated San Francisco streets with a safety driver,” Evans said in a statement. “Now that we’ve passed all critical safety measures, we are excited to begin testing our robotaxi in this wonderful city.”
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This could affect over 2.4 million vehiclesZoox’s self-driving vehicles are visually distinctive and look unlike the cars and trucks with which they’re sharing the road. Earlier this year, the company shared details with The New York Times on how their vehicles are supported remotely by a group of technicans. We’ll know before long if that will make travelers more likely to board one of Zoox’s vehicles when the testing period ends.
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