The vehicle that has been developed by the company Zoox, owned by Amazon, reminds me of those seen in West World. Totally autonomous and totally futuristic. It could even work perfectly for US regulators. This would be great for small towns, which cannot afford, for example, a Bus line, but can, from now on, have an autonomous vehicle that takes people from one side of a town to the other, for example. The company has already implemented its robot taxi, which has no pedals, steering wheel and other systems that require manual control, to transport people in real traffic conditions. “An experience designed for the cyclist, not for the driver”, as defined by Zoox. The first trip took place last weekend after being approved by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in real traffic conditions, with or without passengers. The latter, of course, must be an employee of the company.
Zoox founder and CTO Jesse Levinson provided details about the test on Reddit. According to him, the autonomous car has traveled several kilometers “dozens of times” in real traffic conditions and has never had any problems. There are no other support forces behind the vehicle and no procedures to control it from inside. just around the corner
Zoox vehicles currently have a very limited operating range and can only transport company employees. It’s a common procedure when self-driving cars start getting legal approval to start testing their technology on the streets.
Zoox vehicles are currently limited to a maximum speed of 40 mph (64 km/h) and can only be driven in a limited area of Foster City (a city near San Francisco) during the day and on Saturdays and Sundays when the weather is good. . These are normal procedures in these situations. Over a year ago, Waymo and Cruise began taking the first steps toward fully autonomous passenger transportation. In the fight, Waymo accused the DMV of requesting sensitive information that would put them at a competitive disadvantage.
The question, they explain to The Verge, is whether or not Zoox will obtain the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) to approve the vehicle, since this type of car requires traditional controls. Cruise has chosen to apply to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to grant them a waiver to test vehicles without these requirements.
According to Zoox, your vehicle does not need this exemption and has been self-certified to meet all standards set forth by the NHTSA. However, The Verge notes that regulators are working on such a self-certification, but have yet to receive approval.
