Zoox, an Amazon self-driving vehicle unit, has deployed a small fleet of retrofit test vehicles on the streets of Los Angeles starting Tuesday.
Data collection efforts mark the gateway to Zoox’s sixth city and lay the foundation for future Robotaxi services. Unlike rival Waymo, which already offers paid Robotaxi rides in LA, Zoox is still in its early stages. The deployment will send a manually driven Toyota Highlander with Zoox’s autonomous driving technology, collecting mapping data ahead of broader autonomous testing in LA this summer.
Zoox is currently testing self-driving cars. They have tested both the Highlander Test Fleet and the dedicated Robotaxis, made without a steering wheel or pedal, in several cities. In particular, Zoox has expanded the area its dedicated Robotaxi is testing on public roads in Foster City, San Francisco and Las Vegas without human drivers. Zoox recently allowed employees, the media and other vetted guests to try their services.
The company is also testing it in Austin, Miami and Seattle using human safety operators using Highlanders.
The expansion in California comes weeks after Zoox issued a voluntary software recall for 258 vehicles as issues with autonomous driving system issues unexpectedly put hard brakes.
Zoox’s entry into Los Angeles follows Waymo’s launch of a fully autonomous commercial robotaki service within the city. To date, Waymo is the only US AV company offering paid services in several cities, including the Bay Area, Phoenix and Austin. The Alphabet-owned company aims to launch commercial services in Atlanta, Miami and Washington, DC over the next two years.
This article has been updated with Zoox details.