zoox is the first in the industry to showcase a driving, purpose-built robotaxi capable of operating up to 75 miles per hour.
an autonomous four-wheel drive fully electric vehicle is not breaking news anymore. but amazon announcing it’s new ride-sharing robotaxi along with its vision for the future of urban mobility concept certainly is.
as concept cars go the robotaxi offers pretty familiar features but she also has several unique laudable features: bidirectional driving capabilities and four-wheel steering, which enables maneuvering through compact spaces and changing directions without the need to reverse; a four-seat, face-to-face symmetrical seating configuration that eliminates the steering wheel.
the vehicle has one of the smallest footprints in the automotive industry, about a foot shorter than a standard mini cooper and features a 133 kwh battery, one of the largest available in electric vehicles today, allowing it to operate for up to 16 continuous hours on a single charge.
primarily envisioned for short rides in urban environments, passengers will have an app to hail the vehicle, much as they do with uber and lyft today. we’re led to believe that robotaxi should soon be in business in san francisco and las vegas as these cities are in the vehicles database. not sure how i feel about going 75 mph however.
[ zoox ]
