Amazon-owned Zoox is giving rides only to employees for the foreseeable future.
Zoox
There was Cruise. Nowadays there’s Waymo. And now, Zoox.
According to a recent report by my close friend Jillian D’Onfro at The San Francisco Standard, Amazon-owned robotaxi company Zoox has spent the past several months holding “open houses” around San Francisco in an effort to drum up interest in its autonomous vehicles. As D’Onfro notes, Zoox has the green light to “ferry employees on public roads” around its Foster City headquarters down on the peninsula, as well as along a set route on The Strip in Vegas on a 45mph speed limit.
I have yet to see a Zoox vehicle in the concrete jungle—but they’ll be hard to miss once I do spot one. Unlike Cruise or Waymo vehicles, which utilize a fleet of traditional yet higher-end SUVs, Zoox’s industrial design is decidedly unique. Zoox cars look more akin to carriages, with the seating arrangement inside such that people face inwards whilst moving. What’s more, Zoox cars have no driver’s seat; per D’Onfro, “with its four-wheel steering, the boxy little shuttle technically has no back or front and can drive in either direction.” Given the nonconformist design, two questions Zoox must answer, accessibility-wise, is how easy it is to get in and out and whether its cars accommodate people who use wheelchairs.
Some call Zoox’s look a “futuristic version of a retro hot dog toaster.”
Earlier this week, Zoox put out a blog post wherein the company proclaimed San Francisco its home, adding “initial testing for our robotaxi will occur in a focused area: the vibrant SoMa neighborhood in San Francisco.” During this period, rides aren’t available to the general public; Zoox is giving rides only to employees in an effort to “refine the experience.” As the testing phase moves along, Zoox says “we will expand our geofence to include additional neighborhoods throughout the city.”
As a lifelong disabled person with limited mobility and no vehicle to call my own, the presence of Zoox in San Francisco is an exciting development. Even as an ardent Waymo user, I’m foremost a nerd who enjoys experiencing ascendant technologies. Zoox definitely is that, especially in terms of its design, so I’m excited to someday get an opportunity to ride in one of their hot dog toasters. Obviously, I can’t speak to Zoox’s accessibility merit except at the highest level. Given Cruise’s service remains suspended and rideshare remains problematic, it’s heartening to know disabled San Franciscans like myself have yet one more option to (eventually) move about the city with agency and autonomy. It isn’t insignificant, as autonomous vehicles really do carry the best chance the Blind and low vision community has to effectively owning our own cars and going where we want to go with the same freedom anyone else does with a car or even public transit. Speaking from my own experience with Waymo, there’s something very zen about sitting in an autonomous vehicle—you have to trust the technology, sure, but the more salient point is the lack of a human in the car and the ambient music (should you want it) is soothing if you’re feeling unsocial.
To which I say: Bring on the robotic chauffeurs posthaste!
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source link
