These days the hype is about artificial intelligence and robots, but hardly a decade ago technology of the day he managed it himself. You couldn’t Wave a lanyard at CES without hitting robotax in the second half of the last decade; After COVID, the number of startups decreased, but the technology definitely matured. Go to the right cities—San Francisco and Austin, Texas, to name a few—and you can spot dozens of sensor cars amid downtown traffic.
Zoox’s pod-shaped robot taxis attract attention. Other robotaxi developers are equipping existing cars, such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5s, with the sensors and computing power needed to drive themselves. zoox, It was acquired by Amazon in 2020it did so with a test fleet, but now that it’s starting to offer ride-hailing services in Las Vegas and San Francisco, it’s doing so with a purposeful design that looks like it came off the set of a big-budget sci-fi production.
Chris Stoffel, director of robotic industrial design and studio engineering at Zoox, explained: “A robot taxi is not a car; it’s not a human-driven vehicle, and the requirements are wildly different, although it has to live in that world.”
It all starts with the sensors located on the small protrusion that protrudes from the top four corners of the robotaxis’ body. From there, each has an unobstructed, high-level view, which gives the Zoox robotaxi good situational awareness, especially going straight ahead. “Because we don’t have a traditional hood, we’ve optimized the front fascia in a way that would be nearly impossible on a retrofitted car,” said Ryan McMichaels, director of sensor engineering at Zoox.
Zoox’s robot taxi has a friendly, welcoming design.
Credit: Zoox
Zoox’s robot taxi has a friendly, welcoming design.
Credit: Zoox
Also, thanks to its symmetrical, bidirectional design, the robotaxi doesn’t care if it comes or goes. The advantages are attractive, especially for a car that will be called on demand. There is no need for a three-point turn anymore, and with its symmetrical steering axles, it should have unparalleled agility. For example, because both axles have the same degree of steering, the Zoox robot can crawl more effectively than a GM Hummer EV doing its party trick.
