Iván Hernández Dalas: Zoox tests self-driving service in Washington, D.C.

a sensor equipped zoox test vehicle passes under an over pass.

Zoox is deploying sensor-equipped test vehicles as the first wave of autonomy in the capital. Credit: Zoox

Zoox Inc. yesterday announced the launch of test vehicles in Washington, D.C., initiating the process to eventually deploy its driverless robotaxi service. It is the eighth city for Zoox and its first location in the mid-Atlantic.

The company‘s test fleet is currently operating in seven other cities, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, Seattle, Austin, Miami, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. Zoox recently launched its service in Las Vegas, becoming the first company to provide a fully driverless ride-hailing service in a purpose-built robotaxi in the city.

I had an opportunity to ride in a Zoox robotaxi in January of this year, in an hour-long trip around the Las Vegas Strip. The experience went smoothly and without incident, except for all of the attention from passing motorists and pedestrians. The autonomous vehicle is a custom, all-electric vehicle that can hold up to four passengers, and it does not have a driver’s seat, nor a steering wheel.

Zoox goes to Washington

In Washington, D.C., the first step is to manually map the operating area within the geofence. The sensor-equipped passenger vehicles typically include a couple of engineers onboard as the test vehicle is driven on every surface street and parking lot with the operating area.

Data gathered from the mapping process is processed and consolidated to create a working map based on the sensor package standard for Zoox robotaxis. These test vehicles are manually driven during this process.

The Foster City, Calif.-based company said it expects that the next phase, including autonomous testing, will commence later this year. The first wave of autonomous testing is done with a safety driver behind the wheel, before moving onto the testing of the four passenger, steering wheel-less fully autonomous platform.

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